Academic Research and Practices (5 cr)

Objectives (course unit)

This course familiarizes the partisipant with the principles and methods of academic research and academic writing at Master’s level at a university of applied sciences. It provides the participants with a toolbox to transform the initial development work into a well-structured and logical final thesis. The course will introduce participants to the various research paradigms for the discipline. The module will consider the differences between ‘academic’ and ‘practitioner-based’ research and enquiry and the importance of methodology. The course does not aim to develop educational researchers but rather provide educational leaders with an understanding of the relationship between educational research and practice and the knowledge to lead inquiry based practice.

After completing the course, the participants will be able to:

- know concepts, nature, rules and ethics of academic research
- know some most common research approaches and methods
- analyse academic texts
- plan the research process effectively
- build a meaningful structure for their thesis
- apply concepts of academic research in their own Master’s thesis
choose and apply suitable research approach and methods

Content (course unit)

Concepts in academic research
Most common research approaches and methods
Structure of academic research
Academic research process
Research plan

Assessment criteria, pass/fail (course unit)

Criteria for PASS:The student understands the overall process of designing a research project from the beginning  to the final report. He/she is able to identify ethical issues in research. He/she knows the difference between quantitative and qualitative research. The student is familiar with the criteria for evaluating the quality of a research project. The student is able to articulate a research problem, formulate research questions, develop research objectives and build a theoretical framework. He/she is familiar with basic data collection and analysis methods. The student is able to write a research proposal. 

Location and time

January 2020-May 2020

Exam schedules

No exam

Assessment methods and criteria

Student is able to use academic concepts of research, identifies academic texts and is able to analyze them. Student is able to write thesis/research plan where he/she implements skills of setting research objectives and justification, research questions, data and methods and introduce theoretical background including suitable topic references.

Assessment scale

Pass/Fail

Teaching methods

Lectures, work shop, virtual team working, discussions, individual writing tasks

Learning materials

Will be published during the course

Student workload

5 cr = 135h of work

Content scheduling

Contact day at Tamk 17.1.2020
Tasks for February, March and April in Tabula

Completion alternatives

Must be discussed with teacher beforehand

Practical training and working life cooperation

Student selects

International connections

International student teams and working life connections

Further information

Course is mainly virtual including learning tasks in virtual learning environment (Tabula)

Assessment criteria - pass/fail (Not in use, Look at the Assessment criteria above)

Student is able to analyze and write academic text and write thesis/research plan on the personal field of study based on thesis instructions. Teacher might ask to fulfill report or thesis/research plan.