Internship in Social Research

Unit Code:HAS308

Credit Points	Duration	Contact Hours	Campus	Prerequisite	Corequisite
25 Credit Points	One semester / teaching period	3 Hours per Week plus two days per week with employer	Hawthorn	HAS317 Qualitative Research Methods (formerly HASP307 Qualitative Research Methods) or HAS318 Social Research Design: Principles and Methods (formerly HASP309 Social Research Design: Principles and Methods) (passed at the level of a Distinction grade).HASP309 Social Research Design: Principles and Methods	Nil

Credit Points

Duration

Contact Hours

Campus

Prerequisite

Corequisite

25 Credit Points

One semester / teaching period

3 Hours per Week plus two days per week with employer

Hawthorn

HAS317 Qualitative Research Methods (formerly HASP307 Qualitative Research Methods) or HAS318 Social Research Design: Principles and Methods (formerly HASP309 Social Research Design: Principles and Methods) (passed at the level of a Distinction grade).HASP309 Social Research Design: Principles and Methods

Nil

Related Course/s:

A unit of study in the Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Arts (Sociology), Bachelor of Social Science and Bachelor of Social Science (Sociology).

Aims & Objectives:

This unit aims to give students experience of social research in the workplace under the supervision of an employer. It should also help students understand the principles involved in designing and carrying out a social research project as well as providing them with practical experience in doing this.

Students will either learn, or improve their capacity to:

Design a piece of social research.
Identify clear research objectives.
Consider ethical problems and gain approval from the ethics committee where appropriate.
Set their research objectives in a context so that others can see the relevance of these objectives.
Identify and define their key concepts.
Operationalise these concepts in a valid and reliable manner.
Complete a literature review.
Develop a research argument (by posing a research question and answering it).
Execute a sampling and data-gathering strategy.
Execute a research plan and analyse their data.
Write a clear and succinct research report.

Teaching Methods:

Weekly seminar and placement with an employer

Assessment:

Seminar participation (5%), Oral Presentations (15%), Report from workplace supervisor (15%), and Research report (5000 words) (65%).

Generic Skills Outcomes:

Students will:

Learn to participate in the workplace as an apprentice professional researcher.
Improve their interpersonal skills as they interact with employers, respondents and other people who have evidence to contribute to their project.
Improve their skills in project management (especially of their own time).
Improve their capacity to analyse research critically (and constructively) - their own and that of others.
Improve their team work skills as they assist fellow students in their projects.
Improve their public speaking during class presentations.
Improve their writing skills.

Content:

Research design, ethics, literature reviews, devising research questions, defining and operationalising key concepts, sampling, carrying out a research design, analysing data, writing a research report.