1. Demonstrate a critical and systematic understanding of contemporary research literature and theory within a course-specific topic area, identifying key debates, gaps and directions for future research.

Knowledge & Understanding

Research Skills

2. Formulate a clear, justified research question and design a methodologically and ethically robust research proposal, applying appropriate research methods, digital tools, and analytical planning relevant to your field of study.

Application & Problem Solving

Digital Literacy

3. Communicate a coherent and professionally structured research proposal, while critically reflecting on your own research assumptions, skills, and positionality, and identifying implications for the ethical and effective conduct of the proposed study.

Reflection

Personal Development & Entrepreneurship

To provide a detailed research proposal (2500 words) that outlines the rationale, proposed method, proposed analysis, a schematic timetable of the research, and consideration of pertinent ethical issues.

Students will also have regular meetings with dissertation supervisors who will provide ongoing feedback and guidance throughout the development and conduct of their research project.

This module supports students in identifying a suitable area of research and gaining ethical approval for a MSc research project. More specifically, students will develop their competencies of conducting a critical literature review within a topic area of interest and aligned with their course. The development of the overall research project will be a key focus, including how to develop a suitable research question(s), and methodology. Finally, students will develop skills on how to write a suitable research proposal (including ethical approval application). Module content includes:

Developing a Research Proposal

Research Ethics

Finding a Project Supervisor

Advanced Issues in Quantitative Research

Advanced Issues in Qualitative Research

In this module, you will take the first steps in designing your own MSc research project. You will explore a topic area that interests you, conduct a critical review of the existing literature, and develop clear research questions. You will learn how to plan and justify an appropriate methodology and prepare a professional research proposal, including submitting an ethical approval application. By the end of the module, you will have the confidence and skills to launch your independent research project with a strong foundation in academic rigour and ethical practice.

Students follow an online learning guided study programme and access support material via the virtual learning environment (e.g., Blackboard). Learning is facilitated through the completion of core tasks (e.g., asynchronous lectures and synchronous seminars) and independent study (e.g., additional reading, optional tasks, assignment preparation). Students will become familiar with the research interests and strengths of the members of staff within the department. Within the Activities students will use the collaborative discussion boards to further reflect on and analyse their own work, and the work of their peers to facilitate learning. The assessment set within the module will allow students to demonstrate understanding and critical analysis skills via content and task related activities drawn from the module topic areas, with a particular focus on producing a suitable and ethically-sound research proposal. In addition to core tasks, further additional reading, optional tasks and specific preparation for the module assessments will be required. Students will receive formative feedback throughout the module comprising task-related feedback within the discussion boards, together with the opportunity for peer-learning in addition to comments from relevant tutors.

Recommended Texts:

University of Staffordshire Code of Conduct for Research and Research Integrity - https://www.staffs.ac.uk/research/docs/pdf/research-code-of-conduct.pdf

Succeeding with your master's dissertation : a step-by-step handbook - https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/staffordshire/detail.action?docID=1920721

Doing your master's dissertation https://www.vlebooks.com/Product/Index/321720?page=0&startBookmarkId=-1

Effective presentation skills - http://ezproxy.staffs.ac.uk/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/effective-presentation-skills/docview/2037138176/se-2?accountid=17254



Course Specific Recommended Texts:

MSc Sport and Exercise Psychology:

Harrison, V. (2021) SPSS for psychologists. 7th ed. London: Red Globe Press. Available at: https://libstaff.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/44STA_INST/rlkpvs/alma991000915052506826

Sparkes, A.C. (2013) Qualitative Research Methods in Sport, Exercise and Health: From Process to Product. 1st edn. Edited by B. Smith. United Kingdom: Routledge. Available at: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203852187.

BPS Code of Human Research Ethics (2021) - Available at: https://www.bps.org.uk/guideline/bps-code-human-research-ethics

Access to an appropriate PC, with accompanying software including Office 365 (MS Teams, One-Drive, Word, PowerPoint et al.), Adobe, and Java software.