UVSSPUK014 Methods and Techniques of Social Research

Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Winter 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
PaedDr. Milan Kubiatko, PhD. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
PhDr. Mgr. Leona Hozová, MBA, Ph.D.
Institute of Public Administration and Social Policy – Faculty of Public Policies in Opava
Contact Person: Ing. Lucie Kamrádová, Ph.D.
Timetable
Fri 10. 10. 14:45–17:10 C311, Fri 17. 10. 14:45–17:10 OL, Fri 14. 11. 15:35–18:50 C311
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
Students become familiar with the possibilities of capturing social reality, ways of obtaining, processing and interpreting information in sociology and other social sciences, taking into account the needs of social workers. Due to the characteristics of the subject, the teaching is divided into a theoretical (lecture) part and a practical part, in which students will learn about the implementation of selected research procedures as part of the exercises. The aim of the course is to enable the student to gain orientation in basic methodological approaches to social reality, individual research procedures and techniques, to know their reporting limits and to be able to present and use the knowledge gained. After completing the course, the students should be able to design and implement a simple research (useable, for example, for a diploma thesis), understand professional empirical statements and critically read research reports and research information presented in the media.
Syllabus
1. The nature of social sciences and sociological research; empirical research model. 2. Research begins in the library - How to read a professional text in the social sciences. 3. Research ends with a text - How to write a professional text in the social sciences (research project, professional essay, logic of a research report). 4. Quantitative and qualitative research paradigm (their difference and complementarity), deductive and inductive research logic. 5. Main methods of quantitative research; validity and reliability; the issue of hypotheses. 6. Sample survey in sociology and the problem of representativeness. 7. Questionnaire and observation as data collection techniques; operationalization problem. 8. Analysis of quantitative data and interpretation of research results. 9. Content analysis: a method on the border between quantitative and qualitative procedures. 10. Qualitative research methods. 11. Data analysis in qualitative research. 12. Data presentation, empirical research in bachelor's and master's theses, research ethics.
Literature
    required literature
  • CHRÁSKA, Miroslav. \Metody pedagogického výzkumu. 2nd ed. Grada, 2016, 246 pp. ISBN 978-80-247-5326-3. info
    recommended literature
  • GAVORA, Peter. Úvod do pedagogického výzkumu. 2., rozš. české vyd. Brno: Paido, 2010. ISBN 978-80-7315-185-0. info
    not specified
  • ŠVAŘÍČEK, Roman and Klára ŠEĎOVÁ. Kvalitativní výzkum v pedagogických vědách. Praha: Portál, 2014, 377 pp. ISBN 978-80-262-0644-6. info
Teaching methods
Lecture with discussion, group work, work with text.
Assessment methods
elaboration of a research report with all methodological issuess, written test.
Language of instruction
Czech
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is also listed under the following terms Winter 2023, Winter 2024.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.slu.cz/course/fvp/winter2025/UVSSPUK014