PSY284 Research Practice

Faculty of Social Studies
Spring 2019
Extent and Intensity
0/0/0. Type of Completion: z (credit).
Teacher(s)
Mgr. Michal Čevelíček, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. PhDr. Petr Macek, CSc.
Department of Psychology – Faculty of Social Studies
Contact Person: Mgr. Michal Čevelíček, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Psychology – Faculty of Social Studies
Prerequisites
The course is offered to exchange students only.

After they get familiar with the research conducted in the research group they choose, students are required to actively participate in research from the very beginning of their placement. Therefore, they need to have mastered basic skills in research methodology. Active skills in quantitative methodology and statistical analysis of data, or qualitative research designs and data analyses, are required.

Students need to contact the research group contact person of their choice AT LEAST ONE MONTH BEFORE THE START OF THE SEMESTER of their stay in order to be allowed to enrol in this course.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is offered to students of any study field.
Course objectives
The goal of this course is to enable exchange students’ participation in research groups at the Department of Psychology of the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. Students receive credits for this participation. The amount of credits they receive is based on the number of hours they spend working on assignments that are agreed upon with contact persons of research groups at the department. Participation in research enables students to get familiar with processes involved in research conducted at a professional level, to develop their research skills, and offers them a possibility to continue the work they start during this course when working on their final theses. The planning of activities that students will be assigned to is in the competence of research group contact persons. Students may analyse existing data, collect new data, participate in planning of research strategies, work on publications, etc. At the same time, the course is supposed to be a learning experience for students, therefore participation in tedious tasks is discouraged.
Syllabus
  • There is no fixed timetable for this course. Timetable of students’ participation in research groups will be determined via communication with research group contact persons.
  • There are no study materials specific for this course apart from the syllabus of the course. The literature specific to students’ participation in research groups will be supplied by research group contact persons and/or research group members assigned by them.
Teaching methods
Each semester, the research group contact persons will announce:
1. The number of students that will be accepted to their research groups.
2. The required level of study and skills students are supposed to have.
3. The amount of work and credits students are eligible to receive.
4. Available research topics.
Assessment methods
A successful completion of the course depends on the following criteria that will be evaluated by the respective research group contact person and/or a person assigned by them:
- Active participation in research as agreed with supervisors.
- Timely delivery of the work the students are assigned to.
- Appropriate communication of progress in the research.
- Participation in group discussions in the research group.
- A final report on student’s participation in the research group.

FINAL REPORT
No later than 20 days after the students’ work in the research groups has ended, they are required to submit a report on their participation no longer than 5400 characters including spaces. They send the report to the contact person of their research group by e-mail. If a student makees such an agreement with the research group contact person, the final report may be delivered as an oral presentation. The goal of this assignment is for students to reflect on what they have learned during their participation in a research group, what could be done differently by themselves, their supervisors, and the research teams in order for students to have more gains from the learning process, and what skills did the students bring and develop in order to be useful members of research teams. The structure of the report will be as follows:

- Introduction: What did I work on? What was the topic, goals, and methodology?
- Student gains: What have I learned during my participation in research?
- Obstacles: What obstacles did I encounter and how were these solved?
- Research group gains: What did I contribute to the research group?
- Future directions: What changes would make my learning more useful?
- References (if any sources were cited, which is not compulsory)
Language of instruction
English
Further comments (probably available only in Czech)
Information on completion of the course: 1-10 credits; for each 25 hours of work student gets 1 credit
The course is taught each semester.
Information on course enrolment limitations: Only for visiting foreign students (e.g. ERASMUS), NOT for students of psychology and other programs in Czech language
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
The course is also listed under the following terms Autumn 2016, Spring 2017, Autumn 2017, Spring 2018, Autumn 2018.
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  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/fss/spring2019/PSY284