Prospectus

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Designing Academic Inquiry

Course
2011-2012

Admission requirements

As a component of the LUC Academic Skills requirement, this course is mandatory for all first-year students at LUC The Hague.

Description

This course introduces students to the world of academic research. In line with the various qualities of an honours education in the liberal arts and sciences, students will spring off interdisciplinary building blocks towards higher planes of academic learning through engaging with the tenets of research design on the one hand, and executing a group research project on the other. As ways of knowing are inextricably connected with ways of questioning, this course motivates students to understand and experiment with some central concepts in epistemology, as well as to anchor different epistemological positions through their respective methodological implications. This systematic mapping of method and knowledge will not only equip students with concrete skills in research design and analysis in a liberal arts and sciences framework, but will also lead students to a more complete appreciation for academic inquiry in general.

Course objectives

Completion of the course enables students to:

 Formulate research questions;
 Distinguish and conduct the various discrete stages of a research project;
 Present project results;
 Discriminate among different types of research design and select the methods appropriate for specific research questions;
 Explain and evaluate the different methodologies available in academic research, both in practice and in theory; and
 Understand the significance of epistemological approaches in research design.

Timetable

Please see the LUC website: www.lucthehague.nl

Mode of instruction

This course meets in the form of one two-hour seminar per week, during which students will examine, conduct, and discuss constitutive elements of research design from multi-disciplinary angles. Individual assignments accompany and strengthen this learning process.

Running in parallel to students’ individual engagement with different modes of academic inquiry, each seminar group will participate in one collective project, to culminate in a joint poster for an undergraduate student conference at the end of the course. Each seminar will be tasked with an area of inquiry specific to sustainable ecology—the theme of The Hague Expo 2012, an inter-University College student conference hosted by LUC and the city of the Hague—and implement the practical and theoretical knowledge of research design generated through seminar activities.

Students are responsible for familiarising with the assigned readings and completing the assignments specific to the topics covered in the course. Assignments are to be submitted on the blackboard site for assessment by seminar instructors, who also evaluate the progress and results of the group project per seminar.

Assessment method

Individual assessment:

  • 10% Participation

  • 10% Assignment I: Research question and hypothesis

  • 10% Assignment II: Bibliography and literature review

  • 10% Assignment III: Research abstract

  • 10% Assignment IV: Research proposal

Group assessment:

  • 10% Project teamwork

  • 10% Project methodology

  • 10% Project analysis

  • 10% Project poster

  • 10% Project presentation

  1. Interactive engagement with course material: assessed through In-class participation
    (including textbook review questions): (10% of final grade): Ongoing Weeks 1 – 14
  2. Individual engagement with the stages of research design: assessed through Individual assignments (40% of final grade): Weeks 5, 6, 7, 8
  3. Collective engagement in research design: assessed through Project updates: (40% of final grade): Ongoing Weeks 1 – 14
  4. Collective engagement in research presentation: assessed through Poster presentation (10% of final grade):The Hague Expo 2 June 2012

Blackboard

Student enrollment on the Blackboard site will be administered by LUC The Hague.

Reading list There is one required textbook for the course:

Alan Bryman, Social Research Methods, 3rd ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).

and complementary readings as posted on Blackboard. Please purchase the above text book and check Blackboard regularly for updated reading assignments, as well as other multi-media course materials.

Registration This course is only open to students of LUC The Hague.

Contact information

Any preliminary questions about the course should be directed to the Course Convenor, Dr. Cissie Fu at c.fu@luc.leidenuniv.nl.

Weekly Overview

Schedule Date Content Assignments due
Week 1 09.02.11 Introduction – course and project overview: Nil
Week 2 16.02.11 Research strategies: Project update A
Week 3 23.02.11 Research designs: Project Update B
Week 4 01.03.11 Planning a research project: Project Update C
Week 5 08.03.11 Formulating a research question: Assignment I
Week 6 15.03.11 Reviewing the literature: Assignment II
Week 7 22.03.11 The ethics and politics of conducting research: Assignment III

B L O C K 3 R E A D I N G W E E K

Week 8 12.04.11 The nature of quantitative research: Assignment IV
Week 9 19.04.11 The nature of qualitative research: Project Update D
Week 10 26.04.11 Mixed methods research: Project Update E
Week 11 03.05.11 E-research: Project Update F
Week 12 10.05.11 Writing up research: Project Update G
Week 13 17.05.11 Ascension – no class! Nil
Week 14 24.05.11 Presenting research: Project Update H
Block 4 Reading Week 02.06.11 The Hague Expo – Seminar poster :
Poster conference & Peer review