The Assignment Brief:
Basic information
Word count: 1000 words and minus and plus 10 percent
Assessment description: In future practice, you will find yourself in situations of uncertainty. This uncertainty prompts a question. In order to turn this uncertainty into certainty, you must answer this question. But before you can answer this question, you must be able to formulate it. In this assessment task, you will reflect on why reflective practice is important, what researchers in your field are investigating, and what you might like to investigate.
In later courses in your program, you may be asked to develop an original research question – in the sense of a question to which no one currently knows the answer – and to design and carry out a research project to answer that question. As this is an introductory course, we do not expect you to develop a fully original research question. Rather, we ask you to explore the kinds of research questions currently being asked in your field, and to reflect on the process of developing a research question relevant to a future professional role.
- Defining a reflective practitioner:In this section, do the following:
- Explain what it means to be a reflective practitioner
- Then, based on what you currently know in your field, explain why you think reflective practice is important in your field
- Exploring what others in your field are investigating:Based on your exploration of research by RMIT researchers and major journals in your field, discuss three examples of empirical social science research question that other researchers in your field are investigating. For each example, do the following:
- State the research question.
- Explain why you think research into that question is, or is not, important for practitioners in your field.
- Thinking about what you might like to investigate: Skim the employment adds at an organization for which you might like to work, or look at ads for your profession in an online job site like seek.com.au. Find at least one ad for a position in your general field, which is senior enough that it requires staff to exercise independent judgement (entry-level roles in many professions do not allow staff enough discretion to apply their research skills, while more experienced and senior roles often require research skills to support independent decision-making). Once you have found a suitable role, read the position description of the role, and look up information about the organisation advertising it. Imagine you are a professional working in that advertised role. Do the following:
- State three research questions that would be of interest to the organisation for which you are working.
- For each question, explain why you think inquiring into it would be important to that organisation. (Note that you will return to these questions in tutorial activities and assessments later in this course, so try to choose questions that are also personally interesting to you.)
- Reflecting on what more you need to learn: The course has not yet trained you in social research methodology, so we do not expect you to know, at this stage, how to answer the questions you have posed. However, reflecting on what you have learnt to date, what do you think you would need to learn next about social research methodology in order to begin designing a research project to answer one of the research questions that you have posed?
- Throughout your reflection, cite supporting material from the podcasts, readings, and tutorial discussions. Assigned readings can be cited using standard inline citations (e.g.: Author 2010, p. 32). Podcasts can be cited as (Phelan 2019: week X, slide y). Tutorial discussion can be cited as (Personal Reflection 2019: tutorial week X) if you are citing your own observations, or as (Name 2019: tutorial week X) if you are quoting or paraphrasing someone else’s comments.
This task will be assessed on the following criteria:
- Engagement with the course: assessed by evaluating how you demonstrate evidence of engagement with the readings, podcasts, and tutorial contents through direct references to a range of those materials;
- Understanding of reflective practitioner: assessed by evaluating how well you explain the concept of a reflective practitioner; and how well you apply that concept to your chosen professional field;
- Understanding academic research questions: assessed by evaluating how accurately you recount at least three examples of research questions derived from your survey of professional research in your field; and how well you explain why these questions would or would not be of interest to practitioners in your field;
- Posing research questions: assessed by evaluating how well you formulate three research questions; and how well you explain why the interests and priorities of your chosen professional organisation are expressed in these questions of interest;
- Reflecting on goals for future learning: assessed by evaluating how thoughtfully you reflect on gaps in your current knowledge of social research methodology; and
- Academic referencing conventions: assessed by evaluating how well you meet the conventions of academic referencing, including the use of citations wherever appropriate, and consistent application of the referencing system used in your professional discipline.
Assessment Deception – Rationale for the task
In future practice, you will find yourself in situations of uncertainty
This uncertainty prompts a question
In order to turn this uncertainty into certainty, you must answer this question
But before you can answer this question, you must be able to formulate it
In this assessment task, you will reflect on why reflective practice is important, what researchers in your field are investigation and what you might like to investigate
Unit 1: from where do research questions come?
In this assessment task, you will reflect on the topics from the course podcats, readings and turotial activities from weeks 1-4
Structure for the assignment
- The reflective practitioner
Define what it means to be a reflective practitioner
One who practices, especially: one who practices a profession (Merriam- Webster)
A person actively engaged in and art, discipline, or profession, especially medicine (google)
A person engaged in the practice of a skill, art or disciple a person experienced at or trained in a skill or occupation (OED)
What is practice
The carrying out or exercise of profession, esp. that of medicine or law (OED)
Carry out apply (practice what you preach) (Merriam- Webster)
The action or process of performing or doing something (Dictionary.com)
The first half of the activity in the week 3 tutorial prepared you to answer this
Go back to that handout (see pages 2-5)
At a minimum, draw on schon
You could also draw on Dewey (listed in supplementary materials for week 3)
You could also draw on any notable others who write on reflective practice
Then, based on what you currently know in your field, explain why you think reflective practice is important in your field
You can talk about your field generally or about a specific area within that field (ie diplomacy; police officer
Your field is unique
Your explanation should reflect this; if it does not an explanation of your field, but of many fields
The second half of the activity in the week
Go back to the handout (see pages 6-7)
What do you know about your field?
Reflect on what you have learnt in previous courses about your field?
Reflect on what you have learnt in this course – reflect on your reading of job ads, organsiations and careers, and on your reading of the research being done in your field. Based on this, think about:
What do PR actioners in that field aim to do?
What problems do those practitioners deal with and try to solve?
What do PR actioners in those fields do on a day to day level?
What situations might PR actioners in these fields encounter again and again?
Why might achieving in their aim, dealing with these problems, doing the day to day things they do, being in these situations require reflection?
- Understanding Research Questions
What is research?
Studious inquiry or examination; especially investigation or experimentation aimed at the discovery and interpretant of facts, revision of accepted theories or laws in the light of new facts, or practical application of such new or revised theories or laws (Merriam- Webster)
Based on your exploration of research by staff in your programs and major journals in your field, discuss three examples of research question that other researchers in your field are investigation
Recall the week 2 tutorial, in which you read research in your field. Pick three pieces of research (journal articles) that you read
For each, do the following:
State the research question
State it in the form of a question
The researchers may state it explicitly, or you may have to work out what it is, based on your reading of the research
Explain why you think research into that question is, or is not, important for practitioners in your field
Think about what the research’s finds, and how this would or would not contribute to your field
- Posing Research Questions
finding an ad for a position in your general field, which is senior enough that it requires staff to exercise independent judgement (such a role will allow you to apply your research skills)
once you have found a suitable role, read the position description of the role
then look up information about the organisation advertising it
imagine you are a professional working in that advertised role. Then Succinctly describe the organisation, the role, and your responsibilities
State at least three research questions that would be of interest to the organisation for which you are working
For each question, explain why you think asking that question would be important to that organisation
What difference might know the answer to that question make to the organisation? Would it change the way it thinks or acts? Why? how?
Try to explain why asking that question would be important without presupposing an answer to the questions ( you haven’t done the research, so you don’t know the answer)
In other words, why would knowing an answer to that question at all, regardless of what the answer is, be important to the organisation?
E.g. Do educational programs for inmates increase their sense of self-efficacy?
Rationale; when we find out they do not, then we can stop delivering them (problem: you don’t know what you will find; what if you do find that they do, why will the research matter then?)
Better rationale: one aim of educational programs in prisons is to increase inmates’ sense of self efficacy. We do not currently know whether they achieve this aim, and so whether we are improving inmates’ lives. We must find out whether they do achieve their aim so that we can be sure that we are improving inmates’ lives.
- Learning Goals
However, based on your knowledge now, what do you think you would need to learn about social research methodology, before you could design a research project to answer each of the questions you have posed?
Recall the week 2 podcast- how is knowledge created? In other words, how do we find out things?
Research creates knowledge because it is methodical
Take each of the questions you have posed. What seems to you a methodical way of answering these questions, such that you can be sure that the answer you arrive at is correct?
As you think about this, where do you get stuck? Where do you feel like you done know how to proceed? This is something you need to learn more about
The week 4 podcast- asking questions – and week 4 tutorial may also be helpful. The podcast explains that a good research question must be answerable by observing the social world in one way or another – what you might observe to answer your question?
