EPOKA UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF LAW AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
COURSE SYLLABUS
COURSE INFORMATIONCourse Title: RESEARCH METHODS IN SOCIAL SCIENCES |
| Code | Course Type | Regular Semester | Theory | Practice | Lab | Credits | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PIR 201 | C | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 5 |
| Academic staff member responsible for the design of the course syllabus (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) | NA |
| Lecturer (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours: | Teoman Duman |
| Second Lecturer(s) (name, surname, academic title/scientific degree, email address and signature) and Office Hours: | NA |
| Teaching Assistant(s) and Office Hours: | NA |
| Language: | English |
| Compulsory/Elective: | Compulsory |
| Classroom and Meeting Time: | |
| Course Description: | The course teaches students to learn how to use the quantitative and qualitative methods for investigating political and social sciences topics. It is clear that students will learn developing their research topics and know how to collect and analyze and discuss data. This course seeks to ensure that all students become able to use appropriate research methods on their chosen studies’ field. The course will teach how to use two software, SPSS and NVivo for enabling student to analyses their collected data and equips students how to producing an academic paper. Research Methods in social science are tools that help students and academics to conduct academic studies properly. These methods will provide appropriate guidance for students and academic alike to ask meaningful question about what they study and to find answers of their questions. Therefore, this course will help students to learn and apply key techniques, including inductive and deductive reasoning, hypothesis construction, operationalization of concepts, measurement, sampling and probability, causal inference, and the logic of controls. By the end of the semester undergraduates and graduate students will have a proposal that can be used as the foundation for the senior project and the dissertation prospectus, respectively. |
| Course Objectives: | This course is designed to cover foundations of scientific research in social sciences. The course gives students a chance to learn about research methodologies in political science and international relations and apply them in a practical research study during the semester. Goals of teaching this course include understanding the basics of scientific research in social sciences, comprehending the characteristics of valid and reliable scientific data collection and reporting research findings in a professional way to the stakeholders. |
|
COURSE OUTLINE
|
| Week | Topics |
| 1 | Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 Power in Research, Ethics, Data Protection and Bias |
| 2 | Chapter 3 The Philosophy and Principles of Research Chapter 4 Qualitative versus Quantitative Methods: A Relevant Argument |
| 3 | Chapter 5 Collecting Data Sets: Case Studies, Experimental, Comparative, Longitudinal and Action Research Methods Chapter 6 Critically Evaluating Published Research |
| 4 | Chapter 7 Evaluating Information: Validity, Reliability, Accuracy, Triangulation Chapter 8 Completing a Literature Review: Accessing Published Information |
| 5 | Chapter 9 Asking Questions: Effective Elite Interviews, Other Interviews, Vignettes Projective Questions and Focus Groups |
| 6 | Chapter 10 Questionnaire Surveys |
| 7 | Chapter 11 Observation Chapter 12 Analysing Research Data: The Process |
| 8 | Midterm exam |
| 9 | Chapter 13 Calculating and Interpreting Descriptive Statistics Chapter 14 Using and Understanding Inferential Statistics |
| 10 | Chapter 15 Testing for Association Chapter 16 Applying Factor Analysis and Other Advanced Techniques |
| 11 | 11 Chapter 17 Analysing Qualitative Information: Classifying Coding and Interpreting Information |
| 12 | Chapter 18 Using Content Analysis |
| 13 | Chapter 19 Understanding and Adapting Discourse and Narrative Analysis |
| 14 | Chapter 20 Writing-up |
| Prerequisite(s): | No |
| Textbook: | Pierce, R. (2009). Research Methods in Politics: A Practical Guide. Sage: London, UK. |
| Other References: | Students are advised to search internet sources regarding real-world research applications. |
| Laboratory Work: | |
| Computer Usage: | Students are expected to use SPSS package to analyze research data and MS Office programs to write research report. |
| Others: | No |
|
COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES
|
| 1 | Comprehending the need and philosophy of scientific research in social sciences |
| 2 | Understanding basic concepts of research in social sciences |
| 3 | Learning about how research studies are produced and used in real life |
| 4 | Conducting and evaluating a field study with real data |
|
COURSE CONTRIBUTION TO... PROGRAM COMPETENCIES
(Blank : no contribution, 1: least contribution ... 5: highest contribution) |
| No | Program Competencies | Cont. |
| Bachelor in Political Science and International Relations (3 years) Program | ||
| 1 | Having and using advanced knowledge and comprehension supported by textbooks including actual knowledge in political sciences and international relations literature, materials and the other scientific resources | 5 |
| 2 | Analyzing data, ideas and concepts of current political issues and international relations, determining complex events and topics, making discussions and developing new suggestions in accordance with researches | 5 |
| 3 | Having knowledge and thought about actual topics and problems together with their historical, social and cultural aspects. | 5 |
| 4 | Introducing those who are interested in politics and international events with the topics of Political Science and IR and teaching clearly the problems and the types of solutions | 5 |
| 5 | Improving skills of working together with the main social science disciplines and other disciplines which are related to Political Science and International Relations | 5 |
| 6 | Improving critical thinking and skills in making research independently | 5 |
| 7 | Developing solutions about the problems and conflicts which are common in national and international arena. | 5 |
| 8 | Improving skills for leadership and research and analyze capacity of those who is responsible with national and international ones | 5 |
| 9 | Knowing any foreign language enough to communicate with colleagues and understand actual researches and articles | 5 |
| 10 | Gaining IT skills to use computer and technology) in order to reach actual knowledge | 5 |
| 11 | Gaining skills to follow societal, scientific and ethic values during collecting, interpreting, conducting of data related to social and political developments | 5 |
| 12 | Having consciousness about human rights and environment | 5 |
| 13 | Gaining the skills to follow actual developments and pursue long-life learning | 5 |
|
COURSE EVALUATION METHOD
|
| Method | Quantity | Percentage |
| Midterm Exam(s) |
1
|
30
|
| Project |
1
|
30
|
| Final Exam |
1
|
30
|
| Attendance |
10
|
|
| Total Percent: | 100% |
|
ECTS (ALLOCATED BASED ON STUDENT WORKLOAD)
|
| Activities | Quantity | Duration(Hours) | Total Workload(Hours) |
| Course Duration (Including the exam week: 16x Total course hours) | 15 | 4 | 60 |
| Hours for off-the-classroom study (Pre-study, practice) | 15 | 2 | 30 |
| Mid-terms | 8 | 1 | 8 |
| Assignments | 1 | 10 | 10 |
| Final examination | 17 | 1 | 17 |
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 |
|
Total Work Load:
|
125 | ||
|
Total Work Load/25(h):
|
5 | ||
|
ECTS Credit of the Course:
|
5 | ||