Research Methodology – I | Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University Delhi

Course Type	Course Code	No. Of Credits
Foundation Core	SBP3PM103	2

Semester and Year Offered: Semester 1; 1st year

Course Coordinator and Team: Dr. Richa Awasthy

Email of course coordinator: richa[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites:

Course Objectives/Description:

It is important for the research scholars to understand the various approaches to research, the research process, critical thinking and characteristics of research design before they embark on their journey for research. The course Research Methodology-I is developed with an intention to equip participant with these prerequisites.

course provides participants with the fundamentals of research methodology including research approaches, scientific method of inquiry, research process, research design and writing. The course also enables the participants to develop critical thinking and reading abilities.

Objectives: The course is designed to give an overview of the research process, design and writing. It involves developing an importance of critical thinking. The objective is to facilitate the participants in selecting an appropriate research problem and approach to address the selected problem. The participants will develop an understanding of the research design specific to different research approaches and the technique of literature review along with guiding principles for research writing.

Course Outcomes:

On successful completion of this course students will be able to:

To develop understanding of various kinds of research and significance of doing research.
To develop critical thinking; arguments, justification and explanations.
Demonstrate an ability to design a research.
Develop broad understanding of the research process;

Brief description of modules/ Main modules:

Unit 1: Introduction to Research Methodology

Research types; research strategy – qualitative, quantitative and mixed methodology, difference and application areas; methodology versus methods; research and scientific method; understanding the research process.

Unit 2: Thinking like a Researcher

The Language of research; understanding critical thinking; arguments, justification and explanations; clarity in the language and improve the clarity of one’s own argument;appropriate use of emotive language in one’s own arguments

Unit 3: The Structuring of Inquiry

Selecting a research area and problem; factors affecting the problem selection; the technique of defining research problem, research questions and hypothesis formulation; unit of analysis;

Understanding research design; important concepts relating to research design; types of research design

Unit 4: Review of Literature

Aims and objectives of a review; searching literature, electronic databases, keywords and search parameters; critical review of research manuscripts; assessment of a good literature review; meta analysis; summarizing the review; referencing and citations

Unit 5: Writing a research report

Components of research report; short and long reports; developing an outline, writing research report; critical writing; citation and plagiarism; referencing and bibliography,

Assessment Details with weights:

Assessment	Weightage
Review of literature reports	20%
Research activities	20%
Project Work	20%
End Term Assessment	30%

Reading List:

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. 4th Edition, Oxford University Press, USA.
Babbie, E. R. (2016). The practice of social research. 14th Edition, Nelson Education.
Bailey K.D. (1994). Methods of social research. 4th Edition, New York: Free Press.
Boehm, V. (1980). Research in the real world- a conceptual model. Personnel Psychology, 33, 495-503.
Booth, A., Sutton, A., & Papaioannou, D. (2016). Systematic approaches to a successful literature review. Sage publications.
Browne, M. N., & Keeley, S.M. (2014). Asking the right questions. 11th Edition, Pearson.
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 4th Edition, Sage publications.
Diestler, S. (2011). Becoming a Critical Thinker. 6th Edition, Pearson.
Goode, W. J., & Hatt, P.K. ((1952)Methods in social research. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Gibbons, M., Limoges, C., Nowotny, H., Schwartzman, S., Scott, P., & Trow, M. (1994). The new production of knowledge: the dynamics of science and research in contemporary societies. Sage.
Lester, J. D., & Lester, J. D. (2012). Writing research papers: A complete guide. Pearson.
McGuire, J. B. (1986). Management and research methodology. Journal of Management, 12(1), 5-17.