Availabilities:
Unit Summary
Unit type
UG Coursework Unit
Credit points
12
AQF level
Level of learning
Introductory
Former School/College
Pre-requisites
36 credit points from any SCU course
Unit aim
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
Learning outcomes
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 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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:
-
describe different philosophical approaches to knowledge creation
- GA3:
-
describe the strengths and limitations of various study designs
- GA5:
-
identify a question and plan an appropriate methodology that addresses it
- GA5:
-
evaluate ethical implications of a proposed inquiry
- GA3:
-
demonstrate an ability to conduct basic data analysis
- GA1:
-
demonstrate an ability to interpret and report findings.
- GA1:
- GA5:
Prescribed texts
- This text is available to read online at the library so purchase is not required unless you prefer to read from a book: Portney, LG & Watkins, MP , 2015, Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3rd edn, F. A. Davis, Philadelphia.
- This text is available to read online at the library so purchase is not required unless you prefer to read from a book: Portney, LG & Watkins, MP , 2015, Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3rd edn, F. A. Davis, Philadelphia.
- This text is available to read online at the library so purchase is not required unless you prefer to read from a book: Portney, LG & Watkins, MP , 2015, Foundations of Clinical Research: Applications to Practice, 3rd edn, F. A. Davis, Philadelphia.