Research Seminar

2023/2024

Учебный год

ENG

Обучение ведется на английском языке

2

Кредиты

Кто читает:

Департамент политологии и международных отношений

Статус:

Курс обязательный

Когда читается:

1-й курс, 4 модуль

Преподаватель

Борисенко Максим Сергеевич

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This course is a freshmen introduction into the craft of academic research. The class is divided into two substantive blocks. The first one attempts to engage students into a broad discussion of what the research is and how working with academic literature contributes to producing original research. The second block covers some major elements of research design, thus, providing students with the general understanding of how the research process looks like and its anticipated outcomes.

Learning Objectives

• The main goal of this course is to introduce students to the basic steps of conducting and academic research.
• As a subgoal the course aims at developing the skill of writing a literature review as one of the steps of any research process.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Students explore how a research question connected with a broader research problem. Students learn to tie their question to the theoretical problems in a partiqular field of study.
• Students learn what academic research is and what role does it play in political science.
• Students explore what place does literature review take in a single research. Student learn what goals does literature review aims to reach.
• Students learn how to choose the best research design of future paper depending on the number of cases for analysis: experiment, statistics, comparative research and case-study. Sudents learn the differences and nuances of conducting different types of reseach.
• Students learn how to form a research design in social sciences, with all its parts and elements, by looking into specific examples
• Students learn how to transfer the concepts into the measurable and relevant research variables.
• Students learn the different ways to organize and structure a literature review
• Students learn what theory and hypotheses are in social sciences. Students learn how to formulate hypotheses and how to work with them in their own research.
• Students learn which parts does research include and how fo they compose in a single paper.
• Students learn the differences between the topic of a research and a research question. Students learn how to formulate a good research question.
• Students will learn how to transfer the concepst into the measutable and relevant research variables
• Students learn what academic research is and what role does it play in political science

Course Contents

• DG1. What is research paper and how to read it?
• DG2. Literature review: how to read it, how to write it
• DG3. Research topic, research question and research problem
• DG4. Theories and hypotheses
• DG5. Operationalization
• DG6. Designing your research: how the number of cases affects the design of your paper?
• DG7. Data: Sources and Analysis
• Years 2-4

Assessment Elements

• In-class Tests
  In-class tests represent a set of quizzes taking place at the beginning of each seminar. Each test includes from 1 to 5 open and multiple-choice questions about materials for corresponding seminar. There is a 10-scale grade for each test. For each correct answer a student gets from 1 to 4 points depending on the question. The final grade for this assignment represents a median value of all test results.
• Team Literature Review
  A literature review is a written assignment on a topic proposed by the team themselves and approved by the tutor. A review has to include a clear statement of a question / thesis statement of a broader research problem; be explicit as regard the structuring principle of your review and briefly describe perspectives for further research in the concluding section of your review. Teams have to be formed until DG2. Topics have to be approved until DG3. Literature review have to be submited until DG6, before the class. The only way to submit the literature review is to send it to course instructor via corporate e-mail. (for every overdue day one point will be taken away. This means that if you send your paper three days after deadline you will lost 3 points from the result)
• Exam
  This test consists of two parts. The first part is a quiz with multiple-choice questions where each question has only one correct answer. The second consists of a set of open questions where students have to show that they have a profound knowledge of the matter. All questions are based on the mandatory readings and seminar discussions. The test lasts 1 hour 20 min.

Interim Assessment

• 2023/2024 4th module
  0.35 * Exam + 0.3 * In-class Tests + 0.35 * Team Literature Review
• 2024/2025 2nd module
  -
• 2024/2025 4th module
  -
• 2025/2026 4th module
  -
• 2026/2027 2nd module
  -

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• Political research: methods and practical skills, Halperin, S., 2012

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• The craft of research, , 2016