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Unit of Study MAT71004 - Introduction to Evidence for Health Science Practitioners (2020)

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Unit Snapshot

  • Pre-requisites

      36 credit points from any SCU course

Unit description

Introduces students to different types of methodologies used to inform evidence-based practice and the processes involved in conducting ethical research. Through both theoretical and practical components, students will learn the basic methods for: planning an investigation; collecting, analysing and interpreting data; and reporting and disseminating data findings.

Unit content

Understanding how evidence is created is a cornerstone learning foundation for all students of health sciences. This unit introduces students to understanding the nature of evidence in the health sciences:

  • Ways of knowing and knowledge creation
  • Identifying problems, purposes, aims, questions, hypotheses
  • Ethical and cultural considerations in producing knowledge
  • Methodological designs
  • Data collection methods
  • Data analysis including descriptive and inferential statistics, and thematic analysis
  • Interpreting and reporting findings

Availabilities

Location Domestic International
Coffs Harbour
Session2
Session2
Gold Coast
Session2
Session2
Lismore
Session2
Session2
Online
Session1,3
Session1,3

Learning outcomes and graduate attributes

Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

GA1: , GA2: , GA3: , GA4: , GA5: , GA6: , GA7:
GA1 GA2 GA3 GA4 GA5 GA6 GA7
1 describe different philosophical approaches to knowledge creation
2 describe the strengths and limitations of various study designs
3 identify a question and plan an appropriate methodology that addresses it
4 evaluate ethical implications of a proposed inquiry
5 demonstrate an ability to conduct basic data analysis
6 demonstrate an ability to interpret and report findings.

On completion of this unit, students should be able to:

  1. describe different philosophical approaches to knowledge creation
    • GA3:
  2. describe the strengths and limitations of various study designs
    • GA5:
  3. identify a question and plan an appropriate methodology that addresses it
    • GA5:
  4. evaluate ethical implications of a proposed inquiry
    • GA3:
  5. demonstrate an ability to conduct basic data analysis
    • GA1:
  6. demonstrate an ability to interpret and report findings.
    • GA1:
    • GA5:

Prescribed learning resources

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Texts
  • No prescribed texts.

Prescribed Learning Resources may change in future Teaching Periods.