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Learn how to write a good research question for a paper. Narrow your topic, identify a research problem, and create a focused question with practical examples.
Northwestern University 1 credit Human Development & Social Policy
The purpose of this class is to pull together key core concepts related to research design in HDSP. Many of these concepts are touched upon in other methods courses. This class seeks to bring some of these key concepts together and explicitly discuss the implications for research design. We will begin by reviewing Crotty’s framework for distinguishing between and linking epistemology, theoretical perspective, methodology, and method. The course will then focus on epistemology, theoretical perspective, and methodology. (We will not address methods, as they are addressed more centrally in the quant and qual methods sequences.) We will identify key methodologies of interest to course participants (ie. experimental design, quasi-experimental, developmental designs, case study, ethnography, participatory, etc.) and provide an overview of each. Finally, we will also spend some time on the craft of writing research proposals.
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