Studying at York
Research Methods for Psychology in Education I - EDU00097M
Module summary
This module is the first of two core research methods modules for the MSc Psychology in Education programme.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 1 2024-25 |
Module aims
This module aims to develop students’ methodological knowledge, skills and understanding to a point where they will be equipped to identify their own research questions, find and critique the literature related to those questions, design an appropriate study to address them, gather quantitative and qualitative data and write reports of empirical investigations in APA style. They will have been introduced to some basic statistical tests and analytical approaches. Students will have a clear understanding of the ethical issues involved in conducting psychological research and will be able to reflect on ethical issues in their own work.
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To prepare students to read reports of educational and psychological research with critical analysis, understanding and insight, so they are able to assess the strengths and weaknesses of such research
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To prepare students to consider the contexts and ethics of research in education and psychology
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To develop knowledge and skills that are essential in a range of careers in education, psychology and in the social sciences more widely, including forming research questions, literature searching and reviewing, and quantitative and qualitative research design and data analysis.
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To familiarise students with a full range of quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques in preparation to carry out independent research on topics in psychology in education.
Module learning outcomes
Subject content
By the end of this module students will be able to:
- Find, read and critically analyse research reports and review papers.
- Generate and explore hypotheses and research questions.
- Conduct empirical studies and analyse, interpret and present results at a basic but accurate level.
- Use a wide range of measures and understand their psychometric properties.
- Explain the key attributes of a wide range of research designs including surveys, experimental designs, observational designs and case studies.
- Explain the key features of qualitative research and analysis.
Academic and graduate skills
Students will have learned how to:
- Use search tools such as PsycInfo for literature searching.
- Develop and write detailed research proposals drawing on a range of appropriate research methods and data analysis techniques.
- Apply for ethical approval for research.
- Use SPSS to analyse quantitative data using basic statistical testing.
- Interpret and report the results of basic analyses in correct APA style.
- Analyse qualitative data using appropriate techniques e.g. thematic or content analysis.
Module content
The module content is structured so that it incrementally builds up students’ knowledge of psychological research methods to the extent that they will be in a strong position to focus on statistical analysis and presentation of research in their core semester two module – Research Methods for Psychology in Education 2.
Specifically:
By the end of the semester one students will have learned about:
- Psychology as a Science and the scientific method
- Research hypotheses
- Operationalisation and measurement of psychological constructs
- Common research designs and their limitations
- Research ethics
- Principles of good questionnaire design
- The theory and principles of a range of descriptive statistics
- Techniques, and rationale, for gathering and analysing qualitative data
They will have gained experience in:
- Hypothesis development
- Literature searching and academic referencing
- Evaluating research designs
- Preparing the documentation required for ethical approval
- Designing a questionnaire and using it to collect data
- Coding data, entering it into SPSS and conducting basic descriptive statistical analyses
- Taking part in qualitative interviews as both interviewer and interviewee
- Conducting and writing up a simple content analysis
Students will be taught in weekly online (asynchronous) lectures and either on-campus or online one-hour practicals. The following outline is representative of the lectures that will be given but is subject to small changes.
Students will also have access to weekly drop-in sessions (on-campus and online).
Week 1 - Fundamental concepts in Research Methods
Lecture
- Psychology as a Science (including scientific goals and the scientific method)
- Measuring people (constructs, operationalization, variables and levels of measurement)
Practical
- What is a hypothesis?
- Developing hypotheses about psychological and educational phenomena.
In addition to the regular sessions a compulsory literature searching and referencing workshop will be timetabled for Week 1 or 2, conducted by library staff with subject-specific expertise.
Week 2 – Introduction to Research Design
Lecture
- Introduction to research designs (including experimental designs, quasi-experimental designs, observational designs, surveys and case studies).
Practical
- Practice designing an observational study to test a hypothesis.
- Evaluating practical, theoretical and ethical issues associated with observational designs.
Week 3 - Confounding factors in research
Lecture
- Introduction to confounders including sampling bias, maturation, repeated testing effects, third factor, novelty effects, differential attrition and regression to the mean.
Practical
- Identification of confounding factors in a range of studies, and ways to improve research designs.
Week 4 – Questionnaire Design
Lecture
- Stages of questionnaire design (e.g. formulating research question; identifying population and sample; developing questionnaire with due consideration of item wording, questionnaire formatting (including response scale), mode of administration and analysis; piloting and administration.
- Introduction to reliability and validity.
Practical
- Design a short descriptive questionnaire that gathers data on two psychological constructs plus relevant demographic information (including one grouping variable) and one free response item suitable for thematic analysis.
Formative Assessment 1: Finalise questionnaire and submit by Monday of Week 6.
Week 5 – Qualitative research 1
Lecture
- Introduction to qualitative analysis
- Qualitative vs quantitative analysis
- Research questions and research designs in qualitative research
Practical
- Evaluating practical, theoretical and ethical issues associated with qualitative approaches
Week 6 – Descriptive Statistics 1
Lecture
- Measures of central-tendency
- Measures of spread
- Distributions
Practical
- Introduction to SPSS.
- Calculating basic descriptive statistics (e.g. Mean, Standard Deviation, Frequencies)
- Visualising distributions
- Reporting results correctly in APA style.
Week 7 – Descriptive Statistics 2
Lecture
- Standardized scores and how to calculate them in SPSS.
- Effect sizes and how to calculate them.
- Power analysis
Practical
- Calculating z-scores, effect sizes and power and reporting results in APA style.
- Collecting questionnaire data from classmates.
Week 8 - Correlation
Lecture
- Bivariate correlations
- Scatterplots
- Factors influencing correlations
Practical
- Computing correlations in SPSS.
- Interpreting correlations and scatterplots and reporting results in APA style.
- Coding and entering questionnaire data.
Week 9 – Qualitative research 2
Lecture
- Observation
- Interviews
- Transcription
- Inter-rater reliability
- Bias in qualitative research
Practical
- Practice as interviewer and interviewee.
- Identifying themes and codes in interview data.
- Checking inter-rater reliability.
Week 10 – Qualitative research 3
Lecture
- Thematic analysis
- Content analysis
Practical
- Content analysis of a document or set of comments.
Week 11 – Research Ethics
Lecture
- History of research ethics (including Belmont Report and Tuskegee Study)
- Principles of ethical practice in psychological research (BPS Code of Ethics and Conduct).
- Ethical issues to consider in conducting research with adult, child and animal participants.
Practical
- Writing an ethics application for a hypothetical study.
- Writing a participant information sheet and consent form.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 75 |
| Essay/coursework | 25 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
Reassessment, if required/offered, will be by addressing marker targets for improvements and resubmitting.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 75 |
| Essay/coursework | 25 |
Module feedback
Individual written feedback reports with follow-up tutor discussion if necessary. The feedback is returned to students in line with university policy. Please check the Guide to Assessment, Standards, Marking and Feedback for more information.
Written formative feedback will also be provided on a draft of the questionnaire used to collect data for the summative assessment and verbal feedback on an ongoing basis.
Indicative reading
Publication manual of the American psychological association. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association, 2001.
British Psychological Society. (2006). Code of ethics and conduct. BPS.
Coolican, H. (2014). Research methods and statistics in psychology. Psychology Press.
Field, A. (2009). Discovering statistics using SPSS. Sage publications.
Sanders, L.D. (2010). Discovering Research Methods in Psychology. BPS Blackwell.