Postgraduate Course: Landscape and Wellbeing : Research Strategies & Methods (ARCH11261)
Course Outline
| School | Edinburgh College of Art |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course offers a range of research strategies and methods that are increasingly in demand, combining expertise in understanding the landscape as a planned, designed and managed environment with ways to understand how people engage with and experience that environment, and the health and wellbeing consequences of such engagement. |
| Course description |
You will learn about methodological approaches and multi-method techniques, and the application of theories such as Personal Construct Psychology via practical methods such as Personal Projects. The details will be tailored to your individual interests and backgrounds but will include: topics and approaches such as research ethics, observational studies, natural experiments, area-level versus individual-level data, co-production, research by design, action research, and citizen science.
Different research strategies and their associated methods will be considered and their strengths and weaknesses discussed.
Different approaches to analysis will also be covered, including quantitative, qualitative, and multi-method approaches such as discourse analysis as well as more statistically based approaches, including conjoint analysis.
You will be given examples of the application of different methods and the chance to debate their strengths and weaknesses, and the challenges and opportunities involved in using them to address specific research questions. Examples will draw particularly on expertise and projects developed in OPENspace research centre and in the wider university.
Course delivery is in weekly 2-hour seminar and 1-hour tutorial.
This course is designed to complement Landscape and Wellbeing: Theoretical Foundations
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | In order to take this course you will be expected to have previous knowledge of relevant theories that underly some of the key methods discussed. Such theories are covered for example in the course 'Landscape & Wellbeing: Theoretical Foundations'. You should contact the Course Organiser if you are unsure. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2023/24, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 33,
Feedback/Feedforward Hours 2,
Formative Assessment Hours 2,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
159 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
This course has two summative assessment components:
1. Seminar presentation (20-30 minutes), 30%, week 5 and communicated via Learn and course materials.
2. Research plan (3000-3500 words), 70%, week 13.
In the seminar presentation, you will work in a small group to lead class discussion by critically reviewing one or more assigned research papers on an appropriate theme in the relevant field. Your contribution to the group teamwork in agreeing and carrying out tasks will be assessed by peer review and constitute half of the mark, with the other half based on your individual presentation as part of the group
The plan for a research project should set out all stages of the process.
Both assessments are marked against all Learning Outcomes
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| Feedback |
There are two formative tasks:
1. Research plan outline (500 words), mid-semester and communicated via Learn and course materials, for which written feedback is given by tutors or lecturer.
2. Research plan presentation (10-20 minutes), week 11, for which oral feedback is given by tutors and peers.
Summative Feedback:
Written and oral feedback will be provided on the Seminar Presentation. Written feedback will be provided on the Research Plan. This feedback will be released as per University regulations
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| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Review literature and identify research areas in need of further investigation, the implementation of new approaches, or the establishment of novel links between research areas.
- Identify different research strategies and methods used to investigate the relationship between landscape and wellbeing, including underlying theories, concepts and principles
- Apply critical analysis to principal research strategies and methods used to investigate links between landscape and wellbeing, including their value and expected outcomes.
- Communicate effectively to peers and other academic and professional audiences, using written and graphic skills that draw on conventional and specialist techniques.
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Reading List
Aspinall, P.A, Ward Thompson, C., Alves, S., Sugiyama, T., Vickers, A. and Brice, R. 2010 Preference and relative importance for environmental attributes of neighbourhood open space in older people. Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 37(6): 1022 - 1039
Golicnik, B. and Ward Thompson, C., 2010 Emerging relationships between design and use of urban park spaces. Landscape and Urban Planning, 94: 38-53
Ogilvie D, Adams J, Bauman A, et al. 2020. Using natural experimental studies to guide public health action: turning the evidence-based medicine paradigm on its head. Jrnl Epidemiology & Community Health 74: 203-208.
Padgett, D. 2008 (3rd ed). Qualitative methods in social work research. Los Angeles: SAGE
Park, J.J., O'Brien, L., Roe, J., Ward Thompson, C. and Mitchell, R. 2011. The natural outdoors and health: assessing the value and potential contribution of secondary public data sets in the UK to current and future knowledge. Health & Place, 17(1): 269 - 279, doi:10.1016/j.healthplace.2010.11.005
Twohig-Bennett C, Jones A. 2018. The health benefits of the great outdoors: A systematic review and meta-analysis of greenspace exposure and health outcomes. Environmental Research. 166: 628-637.
Ward Thompson, C., Aspinall, P. and Bell, S. (eds) 2010 Innovative Approaches to Researching Landscape and Health: Open Space: People Space 2, Abingdon: Routledge.
Ward Thompson, C. 2016. Researching the links between landscape and health, in Van den Brink, A., Bruns, D., Tobi, H. & Bell, S. (eds) Landscape Architecture Research Methods. Abingdon: Routledge.
WHO. 2017. Urban Green Space Interventions and Health: a review of impact and effectiveness. Copenhagen: WHO Regional Office for Europe.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Knowledge and understanding: be able to reflect critically on the principal research methods in the discipline, and the theories, concepts and principles underlying methodologies.
Generic cognitive skills: the application of critical analysis, evaluation and synthesis via critical review and judgement on research outputs at the forefront of the disciplines relevant to landscape and wellbeing.
Practice - applied knowledge and understanding: select, and demonstrate the practical application of, specialist skills to a real-life research project, informed by forefront developments in the subject.
Communication skills and autonomy and accountability: work alone and with others to develop and present findings from work, using ICT and numeracy skills as appropriate and the demonstration of routine and specialist skills to communicate electively to different audiences. |
| Keywords | Landscape,wellbeing,health,environment,research methods,green space |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Scott Ogletree
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | Mr Daniel Jackson
Tel: (0131 6)50 2309
Email: |
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