Course description
Programme
The MSc Educational Research offers advanced training in core aspects of educational research. It also offers research training for students coming directly from undergraduate study (usually in a social-science discipline) who wish to prepare for either a research or an academic career and for mid-career professionals who are primarily interested in researching within their own area of practice.
Learning Outcomes
Students who follow this programme will:
* develop understanding of the nature and use of research in education;
* acquire the skills to conduct empirical work in education settings;
* develop a range of research-dissemination skills including oral presentations, writing research reports, abstracts and articles, bearing in mind the diversity and range of audiences for educational research findings.
How You Will Be Taught
Students take six units plus a 15,000-20,000 word dissertation. The units involve a combination of lectures, student-led seminars/presentations and, where appropriate, practical skills training and project work.
MSc/Diploma Educational Research
The MSc/Diploma Educational Research programme offers advanced level training in core aspects of educational research. It can be taken either as a free-standing degree, or during the first year of doctoral study. This programme has been designed for students coming from the variety of disciplinary backgrounds typically found among applicants for a postgraduate degree in education. It also offers research training for students coming directly from undergraduate study (usually in a social science discipline), who wish to prepare for either a research or an academic career and for mid-career professionals who are primarily interested in researching within their own area of practice.
Programme mode /structure
Programme Mode:
The degree can be taken full-time over 12 months or part-time over 24 to 36 months. Part-time students should enquire about programme structure separately as most courses are offered during normal working hours.
Programme Structure:
The programme comprises of
- Taught Component (4 core courses and 2 optional courses)
- Dissertation Component (15,000 words)
Core courses
Nature of Enquiry
The aim of this course is to introduce philosophical and epistemological perspectives which inform research practice in the social sciences in an educational context. The unit provides an essential introduction to the issue of values and ethical problems in educational research. It discusses conceptions of education and their implications for educational research processes.
Content:
• modes of philosophical and empirical inquiry
• the concept of paradigms
• research values and research ethics
• positivism
• poststructuralism, postmodernism and social research
• structuralism
• interpretivism
• feminist methodology
Quantitative Data Analysis with SPSS
This course will provide postgraduate students with an introduction to the main statistical concepts and techniques of analysis of quantitative data used in education and more widely in social sciences. It is addressed to students who have little or no experience of using quantitative data and it aims to enable students to develop an understanding of basic quantitative methods and the ability to use these methods. Moreover, the course will support students in learning the statistical programme SPSS.
Content:
• The nature of data
• First descriptive statistics: frequencies, proportions and percentages
• Measures of central tendency and dispersion
• The normal distribution
• Relationship between variables: correlation, regression, tables and
. measures of association
• From sample to population and hypothesis testing
• Data modelling: multiple regression and logistic regression
Qualitative Data Analysis
This course builds on the Nature of Enquiry course by exploring the nature of qualitative data, its strengths and weaknesses and the kinds of claims that can be made for research designs using qualitative methods. It explores the major themes associated with the management and analysis of qualitative data. It uses examples from educational settings to explore analysis of texts, documents, interview and observational data.
Content:
• nature of qualitative data
• issues of reliability and validity
• accounts from qualitative data
• designing qualitative research
• categorising and making
. connections
• identification of themes and
. patterns
• indexing
• conceptualisation and theorising
Optional courses
The two optional courses may be chosen from those within MSc Education or other postgraduate programmes in the University of Edinburgh with approval from the Postgraduate Director.
