Description
Students will take part in a research project within the institute. About half of the available hours will be spent on practical research activities, such as data collection, data processing, coding of research material, interaction with participants, etcetera. The other half will be spent on writing a research thesis that takes the form of a scientific journal article. Besides the thesis, students will do a profile assignment, guided by their mentor, where they design a research agenda based on their profile courses. The Research Master’s project will be guided by a supervisor. In some cases there will be two supervisors: one for the practical part (the research tutor), and one for the thesis (the thesis supervisor). The students will orally present their research results at the graduation ceremony.
Course objectives
The main objective of this course is that students can practice working as a researcher within the context of an extensive research project. Within this project, students will collaborate with more experienced researchers in accordance with the master-apprentice model. Students will experience what it is like to be part of a research team, and explore their own role in such a team. For their thesis, students will formulate their own research question, connected to data that are already available within the project, or that they collect themselves.
After following this course, students will be able to:
with minimal guidance, formulate, perform and assess scientific research at a level suitable to preparing scientific publications;
independently acquire new knowledge and skills relevant in the research context;
critically select, study and analyse literature relevant to their research project;
translate scientific knowledge and insights into implications for clinical and non-clinical contexts;
communicate about the social relevance of research in the field of education and child studies;
properly select and apply suitable quantitative and/or qualitative research methods;
present research results in English, both in written and in oral form;
show professional conduct according to the NVO (Association of Educationalists in the Netherlands) professional (ethical) code;
participate in professional teamwork, with a constructive and responsible attitude, and reflect on their own personal functioning in the team;
reflect on their own learning process.
Mode of instruction
Students will discuss with their research tutor which set of practical tasks they will perform within the research project. They will have regular meetings with their research tutor to reflect on these tasks and on their role in the research team. During the process of writing the thesis, they will regularly meet with their thesis supervisor, who will give constructive feedback. Each chapter of the thesis will be provided with feedback twice. The complete draft will receive feedback once. After the student has processed all the feedback, the thesis will be assessed.
Assessment
The thesis will be assessed by the thesis supervisor, and independently by a second assessor, using a digital assessment form. The form contains assessment criteria that connect to each chapter of the thesis; these criteria are assessed by both assessors. In addition, the student’s learning process and attitude are assessed by the first assessor (thesis supervisor) only. The first assessor will also assess the quality of the presentation slides that the student will orally present at the graduation ceremony.
Beside the thesis, students have to do a profile assignment that connects the scientific abilities they practice during the thesis and the other research-focused courses to the substantive knowledge they gained in their profile courses. The profile assignment is assessed by the student’s mentor. Rubrics for all parts of the assessment (thesis, profile assignment, and presentation) are available on Brightspace.
To pass the course, the student needs to have sufficient grades on the presentation slides and the profile assignment; for each of these assignment students with an insufficient grade get one opportunity to re-do the assignment. The final grade for the thesis must be 6.0 or higher. If on the first attempt, the student obtains a failing grade on the thesis, they will get one opportunity for adjustment (the re-exam). If this second attempt also ends in a failing grade, the student will have to re-do the entire Master Thesis with another research group.
Brightspace
Additional information can be found on the Brightspace site of the course Research Internship.
Reading list
There is no reading list for this course. Depending on the context of their internship, students will need to read scientific literature to support their work. In addition, they will need to read scientific papers as a background to their assignment.
Registration
Students do not need register for the Research Master Thesis in My Studymap.