General provisions

The course is part of the Master's Programme in Sociology of Education.

Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree corresponding to at least 180 credits, including at least 90 credits from a discipline pertaining to the social sciences or the humanities.

Learning outcomes

The students should acquire knowledge of educational methods, construct a research project and design a scientific study.

After completion of the course students are expected to be able to

• analyse and evaluate how various methods and materials interact with research questions in scientific literature
• formulate research questions in relation to research traditions and the current state of research and apply appropriate methods to relevant empirical data
• utilise the central metods in the field of Sociology of Education
• identify, and apply, scientific ethical principles
• give short oral presentations

Content

The course discusses the most central methods in Sociology of Education, including statistics, surveys, interviews, observations, and text analysis. An important part of the course is devoted to research design, formulation of research questions and construction of research objects. The course combines reflection on the theoretical foundations of scientific methods with practice of these methods. Scientific ethical principles are also discussed.

Instruction

Lectures and seminars.

Assessment

The assessment is based on written assignments.

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.