Strathclyde, University of, MSc, Applied Educational Research

This course provides educational researchers with comprehensive coverage of contemporary issues and a range of intellectual and practical resources to structure and explore these issues; the course is web-based and run on an open learning basis; modules are flexible and can be customised to the interests of diverse constituencies; researchers develop the capacity for critical self-reflection, leading to research design and analysis that best explores issues in their own areas of interest; the course enables students to design and conduct educational research with the critical insight born of understanding the different types of research and the possibility of combining them, in terms of: Underlying conceptions of the person, social relations, education and research practice; 1st-order principles defining valid research problems and knowledge; political and social assumptions about the purpose of research and its relationship to constituencies of practice and policy; research strategies implied by different philosophical assumptions; techniques for engaging in knowledge-gathering from educational settings and sources; techniques for analysing data; methods of disseminating research outcomes and emergent issues; use of research for educational and social ends.