Course Contents

ore Reading: Creswell, J.W. & Creswell, J.D. (2018). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches, Fifth Edition. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. Creswell, J.W. (2013). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative and Mixed Methods Approaches, Fourth Edition. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. Creswell, J.W. (2012). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, Fourth Edition. Boston: Pearson. Recommended Reading: Brown, J. D., & Rodgers, T. S. (2009). Doing second language research. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Creswell, W.J. & Guetterman, T.C. (2018). Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research, 6th Edition. Pearson: New York. Creswell, W. J. (2013). Qualitative Inquiry & Research Design: Choosing Among Five Approaches. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. Davis, K. A. (2011). Critical qualitative research in second language studies: Agency and advocacy. Charlotte, N.C: Information Age Publishing. Fraenkel, J. R., & Wallen, N. E. (2007). How to design and evaluate research in education. Boston: McGraw-Hill. Johnson, R. B. & Christensen, L. (2017). Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches. SAGE Publications. Lester, J. D. (2011). Principles of writing research papers. Boston: Longman. Wallwork, A. (2011). English for writing research papers. New York: Springer.

Course Synopsis

This course provides an introduction to research methodology in Educational Studies with an aim to familiarise students with basic concepts of research theory and practise. It also acts as a preparatory course for students undertaking research for their Final Year Project. The course examines current research paradigms, principles of research design, instruments of data collection, and commonly used research methods, processes involved in the analysis of data, and modes of presenting research findings. By covering a range of theoretical and practical issues related to research in Educational Studies, the course shall equip students with an appropriate understanding of concepts, tools, and methods to conduct future research in their field of interest. Aims and Objectives: The course aims to enable students to: 1. Understand various research paradigms and become aware of theoretical and practical issues related to humanities research especially in contemporary Educational studies. 2. Review previously published work in the field, select an appropriate research topic with an awareness of principles in research design. 3. Demonstrate knowledge required to plan and conduct research with an understanding of appropriate research methods for a particular domain. 4. Familiarise themselves with skills to analyse different types of research data and explore various tools and software for the analyses. 5. Consolidate their research and academic skills to present research findings in both spoken and written forms.

Course Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to: 1. Identify key issues regarding research in current Educational studies and develop skills to search online and offline sources to carry out literature review. 2. Define an appropriate research topic by recognising a suitable research area and thereby, formulate research questions accordingly, by describing the rationale and research design. 3. Distinguish between various aspects of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-methods research in Educational studies. 4. Design and conduct a research study in accordance with the identified research need. 5. Assess ways to collect, compile, and conduct a data analysis by considering the use of various software tools in order to analyse research data. 6. Apply academic skills to present the research study findings in a formal academic oral presentation and a written research paper.