This module facilitates development of your knowledge and skills through designing and carrying out an independent project on a topic chosen from a range...

Independent Research Project (Women&#039;s Health) (IFWH0004)

This module facilitates development of your knowledge and skills through designing and carrying out an independent project on a topic chosen from a range offered at the beginning of the academic year (guided by the Programme Director). You will produce a dissertation of 8,000 words, gaining independence and self-reliance through the process of evaluating evidence, assembling ideas and analysing data, and will become confident in presenting work both orally and in a written form.

On successfully completing this module, you should have increased knowledge and understanding of the chosen topic or field of research and the principles of evaluating evidence from published research and, depending on your subject choice, from clinical data or from the results of practical work in the laboratory. You would also gain the skills to:

• analyse and appraise the work of others

• formulate a research question

• write and deliver a short oral presentation

• make a logical argument

• write an independent dissertation that communicates facts and ideas

• work independently, manage time and work to deadlines.

and, where applicable, to use technical skills in the laboratory or apply key methods and concepts of statistical analysis.

This module provides an overview of systematic comparative analysis in the social science of education and shows you how to use this method for constructive...

Comparative Education: Theories and Methods (EDPS0137)

This module provides an overview of systematic comparative analysis in the social science of education and shows you how to use this method for constructive explanation and theory building. We will ask crucial questions such as why some national education systems produce higher social equality than others, why market-oriented reforms in education have spread unevenly across Europe and the USA, and why some Asian countries score higher in the OECD PISA tests than most of Europe. The major portion of the module is devoted to classic comparative methods: Most Similar Systems Design (MSSD), Most Different Systems Design (MDDS), Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) including process tracing, and related approaches. These methods are contrasted with statistical comparative methods at the macro level and the micro level. The aim of the module is to make you familiar with the basic rules of doing comparative research through these most influential methods and salient topics in the comparative social science of education, and to design your own comparative research strategy involving gathering, assessing, and using evidence.

This is a compulsory module for MA Comparative Education students.