Postgraduate Course: Researching Higher Education (REDU11067)

Course Outline
School	Moray House School of Education	College	College of Humanities and Social Science
Credit level (Normal year taken)	SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate)	Availability	Not available to visiting students
SCQF Credits	20	ECTS Credits	10
Summary	This course on Researching Higher Education has been designed to dovetail with the 10 credit course Research Design in Higher Education that examines overarching aspects of research design. The intention is that cumulatively the courses Reading and Analysing the literature on Higher Education, Researching Higher Education, Research Design in Higher Education, together with the dissertation will give participants a sound foundation for conducting research in their workplaces and/or for entry to doctoral study. The course explores the philosophical underpinnings of quantitative, qualitative research and mixed methods research and introduces students to the diversity of practice that is subsumed under the title of ¿qualitative research¿ or ¿quantitative research.¿ Consideration is also given to the contrasting value positions and researcher stances that may drive inquiries into higher education. Central emphasis is given to exploring approaches to, and the practicalities of, data gathering and analysis. A key concern here is to bring participants to connect up general issues and debates in the literature on research methods with the day-to-day realities of their own practice. To assist in establishing connections between theoretical frameworks and personal research practice, learning/teaching activities tend to centre on moving from the examination of participants¿ own experiences in small-scale exercises in data collection and analysis to the consideration of general issues in the methodology literature. Attention is also given to considering the kinds of research claims that different approaches to research can make.
Course description	Quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods research? Researcher stance Reflexivity Research ethics Interviewing Survey research Observation Researching virtual spaces and students¿ online experiences Analysing quantitative data Thematic approaches to analysing qualitative data Generalisability Validity and Reliability

Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites		Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations		Other requirements	None

Course Delivery Information
Not being delivered

Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to: 1. demonstrate the capacity to draw on relevant literature on research in an analytical fashion to frame their own research inquiries and to consider issues that arise in everyday research practice; 2. display an analytical approach to issues in, and the practices of, producing and analysing data; 3.display a well-argued personal interpretation of issues and controversies in the methodological literature; 4.show the capacity to analyse data to the standards expected at Masters¿ level study; 5.demonstrate the capacity to reflect in a well-principled manner on ethical issues in conducting research, analysing data and reporting.