Seminar Research Project

6 ECTS credits
158 h study time

Offer 1 with catalog number 1022191BNR for all students in the 1st and 2nd semester at a (B) Bachelor - advanced level.

Semester

1st and 2nd semester

Enrollment based on exam contract

Impossible

Grading method

Grading (scale from 0 to 20)

Can retake in second session

Yes

Enrollment Requirements

Je hebt 'Werkcollege sociologie en wetenschapsmethodologie (langlopend onderzoek I)' en 'Inleiding onderzoeksmethoden voor mens- en maatschappijwetenschappen' gevolgd, alvorens dit opleidingsonderdeel op te nemen.

Taught in

Dutch

Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences & SolvayBusinessSchool

Department

Sociology

Educational team

Hadewijch Vandenheede (course titular)
Julie Vanderleyden

Activities and contact hours

9 contact hours Lecture
39 contact hours Seminar, Exercises or Practicals
110 contact hours Independent or External Form of Study

Course Content

The practical seminar “Long-term research II” (langlopend onderzoek II) is part of a group of three different seminars organised over the three bachelor years of the sociology programme: Seminar sociology and science methodology (Langlopend Onderzoek I), data collection and processing (langlopend onderzoek II) and bachelor paper (langlopend onderzoek III). The aim of these three seminars is to teach students to apply their methodological and theoretical knowledge and skills to real-life research problems.

In this seminar, the exploration of a research domain, developing a research question and research design, data collection through field work and the practical application of quantitative (SPSS) software are central.

Students are divided in groups and work together around a specific sociological topic (defining a research objective, operationalisation, field work, analysis, reporting, writing up).

The seminar “Long-term research II” consists of 5 modules: (1) literature review and research questions (1st term); (2) operational definition of concepts / drafting of a survey (1st term); (3) data collection and processing (2nd term); (4) data analysis (2nd term) and (5) reporting (2nd term).

Additional info

Course material: Manual (see Canvas).

Learning Outcomes

Algemene competenties

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

Cognitive skills

Students are able to search for literature in a systematic way and can assess different types of sources on their quality
Students are well acquainted with the structural set-up of a scientific article
Students are able to credit sources correctly
Students are able to explore a social phenomenon and translate it into a research topic
Students are able to define a research topic in terms of a research problem, a research design, research questions and hypotheses
Students are able to students are able to define the objectives of their research in terms of a research plan
Students are able to develop a standardised questionnaire and to test and evaluate this questionnaire, while bearing in mind problems related to construction, reliability, validity and understandability of questionnaire items
Students are able to design a field work strategy with the aim of collecting data in the selected research population and using a standardised questionnaire, while paying specific attention to problems of sample design, representativeness and response maximization
Students are able to use statistical software in a practical manner in order to prepare, modify and analyze data derived from a survey

Psychomotorical skills

Students are able to critically compare and evaluate different methods for data collection and processing
Students are able to evaluate their own learning process in a critical manner

Interactive skills

Students are able to work as a team in order to fruitfully design and conduct scientific research

Grading

The final grade is composed based on the following categories:
Written Exam determines 40% of the final mark.
Other Exam determines 60% of the final mark.

Within the Written Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Research Paper with a relative weight of 100 which comprises 40% of the final mark.

Within the Other Exam category, the following assignments need to be completed:

Work throughout the semester with a relative weight of 100 which comprises 60% of the final mark.

Additional info regarding evaluation

Students will be graded based on their performance throughout the semester, which constitutes 60% of the total grade.

Additionally, a collective research paper must be completed by the end of the semester, contributing 40% to the total grade. The evaluation of this paper will be based on predefined criteria outlined in the course syllabus available on Canvas. The use of generic AI is prohibited for this paper.

During the second session, students are required to write an individual paper on an approved topic. The use of generic AI is also prohibited for this paper. Students participating in the second session must submit a research topic for approval beforehand, and their full paper will be based on this approved topic. This individual paper will account for 50% of the total second-term evaluation, with the remaining 50% based on the evaluation of participation throughout the year.

Allowed unsatisfactory mark

The supplementary Teaching and Examination Regulations of your faculty stipulate whether an allowed unsatisfactory mark for this programme unit is permitted.

Academic context