Group A: Research Methodology
This course is designed to explore various steps in research, types of methodologies, the structure of research, and the understanding and skills needed for conducting research effectively.
Course Objectives:
The objectives of this course are to:
- Develop the basic framework of the research process, various research designs, and techniques.
- Identify various sources of information for literature review and data collection.
- Appreciate the components of scholarly writing and evaluate its quality.
- Introduce the concept of scientific research and the methods of conducting scientific inquiry.
Learning Outcomes:
At the end of the course, students will be able to:
- Enumerate the characteristics of research, identify the different types of research, and explain the roles of research in development.
- Learn qualitative research methods.
- Plan a research design with questionnaires and schedules.
- Perform the steps of the research process and the decision-making stage.
- Create and justify a research proposal with appropriate techniques.
- Organize and conduct research (advanced project) in a more appropriate manner.
Contents:
- Research: Aims and objectives of research, motivation for research, characteristics of research.
- Types of Research: Qualitative and quantitative research, basic research and applied research, descriptive research, causal research, and explanatory research.
- Research Process: Various stages of research, analytical framework, theoretical framework, flow chart.
- Research Design: Experimental and non-experimental research design, quasi-experimental design, validity and reliability in research design, threats to validity.
- Data Collection: Various techniques of data collection, tools of data collection, questionnaire construction, interviewing techniques, non-response and dealing with non-response.
- Proposal Development and Report Writing: Types of proposal, EOI, components of a research proposal, components of a scientific report, writing summary, conclusion and recommendation, footnotes, references, appendices.
- Concept of Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E): Objectives, usefulness, and scope of M&E; views of different schools on M&E; performance monitoring versus performance evaluation. Baseline, ongoing, and end-line evaluation; impact evaluation; M&E of ongoing programs (activities, inputs, outputs, effects); follow-up for remedies, and post-program evaluation. Monitoring and evaluation plan and data sources: Indicators for monitoring and evaluation; identification of indicators and characteristics of ideal indicators; factors influencing indicator selection.
Group B: Social Statistics
Social statistics is the use of statistical measurement systems to study human behavior in a social environment. This course provides students with a basic introduction to statistical concepts and methods used by social scientists to analyze quantitative data.
Course Objectives:
The objectives of this course are to:
- Understand the principles of social statistics.
- Gather the concepts and methods of measuring national income.
- Introduce the concept of poverty and its issues.
- Introduce students to psychometrics.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing this section, students will be able to:
- Understand the distribution of income.
- Measure inequality.
- Analyze the Lorenz curve.
- Calculate different indices of national income.
- Measure different poverty indices and interpret the results.
- Gain knowledge in psychometrics.
- Calculate test scores and intelligence quotient.
- Understand the concept of anthropology and its functions.
Contents:
- National Income: Concepts and methods of measurement; social accounting matrix; theoretical distribution of income and wealth: Pareto and Lognormal distribution of income.
- Inequality Measurement: Positive and normative measures of inequality, Lorenz curve, Gini coefficient, Atkinson's index, Theil's index, Herfindahl index, Human development index, desirable properties of measures of inequality.
- Poverty: Concept, definition, and issues of poverty; approach for drawing the poverty line income; measurement of different poverty indices; Foster, Greer, and Thorbeck's general class of poverty measures.
- Introduction to Psychometrics: Measurement in psychology and education; intelligence and achievement tests; test scores; equivalence of scores; Z-scores and T-scores; intelligence quotient.
- Anthropology: Definition, nature, and importance of anthropology; role and functions of family, social inequality, inequality by sex, age, rank, caste, race, class, power, rule, and social connections.