EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH PROPOSAL -MEd

Assessment

Learning Outcomes and Assessment

The teaching and learning strategy used in this module is designed to help you

achieve the learning outcomes outlined on page 2, while the assessment strategy

provides you with a structured opportunity to demonstrate that you have actually

achieved them and to gain formal recognition for this achievement.

Assessment Strategy

Summative assessment

The module will be assessed summatively through a 3,000-word (+/-10%) research

proposal due for submission by 5 pm on August 5th via summative assessment

submission link located in the Module Assessment area of the module site. This

should be the research proposal that you submitted for formative assessment,

amended and developed in line with the feedback that you received. A detailed

summative assessment brief can be found below.

Working title

Create a title for your proposal. It should indicate your research topic
clearly and concisely. You are proposing a small scale project so a
narrow focus is appropriate.

(Your title should match your research question but it should be a statement, not a
question – it could be your research question turned into a statement).
 Rationale

Provide the reasons why this topic is worth investigating. Is it a

national/local priority? Is it a priority in your professional context? Is it a priority in
your own practice? Is there a gap in the research literature and scholarship relating
to this topic and does your proposed study aim to make a small contribution towards
closing this gap? For example, could it be that there is research literature about this
topic but the focus tends to be secondary schools and your proposed study will focus
on primary schools or early years settings or further education or higher education so
it will add some new insights in the research literature about this topic? Could it be
that there is research literature about this topic but the studies have been conducted
in other education systems so, by focusing on the education system in which you
work, your proposed study will add some new insights to the research literature
about this topic?

Significance

Give some detail about the significance of your proposed study. Who will
benefit from your findings? How?

Research question

State the question you wish to answer through your research study.

Aims

State the aims (what your study sets out to achieve, its purpose).

Links to literature

1. With reference to appropriate academic literature, define key term(s) associated

with your topic (e.g. inclusive practice, distributed leadership, transformational
leadership, differentiated instruction, outdoor learning, wellbeing, attachment,
school ethos, inter-professional working, parental involvement etc).
2. Following the UWS referencing guidelines, provide the references to a minimum
of 10 recent research articles that are relevant to your proposed study. This
 should give an overview of the current knowledge about your topic and how it has
developed. The articles must be either reports of original research (see here for an
example) or reviews of research conducted by others (see here for an example).
3. Choose five of the articles that you listed in step 2 and, review the main finding
that are of relevance to your proposed study, being careful to assess their
limitations and critically evaluating their claims. Explain why they are relevant
and state how the findings of your proposed study might relate to them (e.g. they
will provide more recent perspectives to show whether there have been any
changes since the article was published; they will provide perspectives from a
different context to show how this may affect the findings; they will provide
perspectives based on data collected through a different data collection tool or
from a different type of sample, etc).

Research design

 State the approach which you intend to adopt for your proposed study and the
research paradigm it aligns with:

Qualitative

Quantitative

Mixed methods

Briefly justify your choice (with reference to relevant reading) and state why
alternative approaches are not suitable.

 State the tool(s) that you intend to use to collect data, e.g. interviews,
questionnaires, focus groups, observations, etc. Briefly justify your choice (with
reference to relevant reading) and state why alternative tools are not suitable.
 Provide details of the sample that you intend to use and justify your sampling
decision (with reference to relevant reading).
 Explain what ethical considerations you will need to address in your proposed
study (with reference to relevant reading).
 Explain how you intend to analyse the data that you will collect (with reference to
relevant reading).
  State what limitations you expect your study to have.

Reflection on development of your project through group work activities

In this section describe the articles and discussions that helped you make your
decisions, being specific about the task and the members of the class who
contributed to your understanding.

References

 Following the UWS referencing guidelines, provide a list of the references to the
sources that you used in this section.

Summative Assessment Task

The module will be assessed summatively through a 3,000-word (+/-10%,

including all in-text references but excluding the references in the reference list)

Contents

Your research proposal that you will submit for summative assessment should
have:

 A title that indicates your research topic clearly and concisely.

 An introduction in which you should outline briefly the contents of the proposal.
 A section entitled ‘background and context’ in which you should:
 provide the reasons why your proposed topic is worth investigating
 give some detail about the significance of your proposed study
 state the question you wish to answer through your research study
 state the aims you wish to achieve through your research study.
 A section entitled ‘literature review’ in which you should define key term(s)
associated with your study and discuss recent research that is relevant to your
proposed study.
 A section entitled ‘research design’ in which you should:
 state the approach you intend to adopt for your proposed study
(qualitative, quantitative or mixed methods), justify your choice (with
 reference to relevant module readings and other appropriate academic
literature), and state why alternative approaches are not suitable.
 state the tool(s) that you intend to use to collect data (e.g. interviews,
questionnaires, focus groups, observations, etc), justify your choice (with
reference to relevant module readings and other appropriate academic
literature) and state why alternative tools are not suitable
 provide details of the sample that you intend to use and justify your
sampling decision (with reference to relevant module readings and other
appropriate academic literature)
 explain what ethical considerations you will need to address in your
proposed study (with reference to relevant module readings and other
appropriate academic literature)
 explain how you intend to analyse the data that you will collect (with
reference to relevant module readings and other appropriate academic
literature)
 state what limitations you expect your study to have.
 A conclusion in which you should outline briefly what you have covered in your
proposal.
 A list of all the references to the sources that you used in your proposal
(following the UWS referencing conventions).