PL3RES: Research Methods

Module code: PL3RES

Module provider: Clinical Language Sciences; Sch of Psych and CLS

Credits: 20

Level: Level 3 (Honours)

When you'll be taught: Semester 1 / 2

Module convenor: Dr George Pontikas, email: g.pontikas@reading.ac.uk

Additional teaching staff 1: Dr Emma Pagnamenta, email: e.pagnamenta@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s): BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST ( TAKE PL2CLN2 OR TAKE PL2CLIN2 ) AND ( TAKE PL2SLC2 OR TAKE PL2SLCD2 ) (Compulsory)

Co-requisite module(s): IN THE SAME YEAR AS TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST TAKE PL3SLC3 AND TAKE PL3CLN3 (Compulsory)

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: No

Talis reading list: Yes

Last updated: 23 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module introduces key concepts and current good practices in research applicable to speech and language therapy. Students learn how to design and plan quantitative/qualitative studies, how to collect and analyse data and how to report and interpret their findings. Students will also learn how to adhere to ethical requirements or guidelines when conducting research. Learning activities include both active planning of a study in seminars, statistical analyses with specialised software packages in practicals, and engagement with published literature. This module supports students in developing research-related competences which are essential to understand and apply evidence-based practice (e.g., SOP 13 & 14) as outlined by the HCPC and the RCSLT.  Moreover, it prepares students for their dissertation project in Part 4.  

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to: 

1. Identify and address potential ethics problems and governance issues at all stages of non-invasive clinical research in humans; 
2. Utilise key concepts and theoretical knowledge to examine a range of diverse published research papers in terms of research design and evaluate them in terms of quality and rigour;  
3. Independently undertake small-scale qualitative/quantitative research (conceptualisation; planning; in particular, data analysis; reporting/interpretation of results) which is in line with current research practice and is theoretically informed;  
4. Effectively communicate all aspects of a proposed, undertaken and managed research project in the form of an ethics application and research paper/lab report. 

Module content

1. Research design: principles of research and experimental design – within- between-subject and mixed designs, confounds 
2. Working with numbers: types of data (ordinal, categorical, scale/ratio), descriptive statistics (central tendency dispersion) – data visualisation 
3. Inferential statistics 1: Statistical tests for comparisons – paired/independent samples comparisons -interactions (more than on independent variable) - pairwise comparisons (for independent variables with more than 2 levels) 
4. Inferential statistics 2: analyses of association (correlation, regression, chi-square) and mixed effects modelling 
5. Theoretical underpinnings and key concepts (Central Limit Theorem, effect sizes, statistical power, false positives/negatives, confidence intervals among others) 
6. Types of research design in clinical research – from case studies to systematic reviews 
7. Qualitative research methods in SLT research 
8. Research integrity: ethics in (non-invasive) clinical research, governance, audits in SLT practice

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

1. Lectures: These will cover the core content. There will be 12 x 2-hour lectures delivered face-to-face and 6 x 2-hour lectures delivered with the contributions from external experts which will be flipped.  
2. Seminars: There will be 12 x 1-hour and 6 x 2-hour seminars; in these students will utilise the content from the lectures to plan their own proposed research but also to evaluate existing studies.  
3. Practicals: There will be 6 x 2-hour practical sessions covering SPSS which is a popular software for analysing data in the social sciences. These will be supervised by a stats demonstrator, but students will be given tasks to work on throughout the session. 

Study hours

At least 60 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 40% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

1. Online BB quizzes similar to exam
2. Autumn term seminars: tasks relevant to lab report preparation and analysis (e.g. planning)  
3. Spring term seminars: supporting students with writing report (e.g. sample reports, drafts) 
4. Lab practicals: data analyses to be adopted in the lab are report are modelled  

Reassessment

Additional costs