CMNS
260-3
RCB 6236; 604-291-4119
Email: richards@sfsu.ca
Prerequisites: CMNS 110 or
130.
Research begins
with a question. How many of these are
also those? Why do so many of those end
up in these circumstances? How often
does this happen? This course is about
research – the process of asking questions about the world around you, and
getting answers to those questions. In
particular, it is about empirical research – research in which the questions
are about things that exist or happen, questions about people or events or
circumstances in the world that do or do not happen – and in which the answers
are obtained by somehow observing things in the world.
Week Topic
1. Scientific vs.
non-scientific enquiry. Paradigms, theory, explanation,
research. Conceptualizing: concepts & variables. Ch 1,2, pp 171-172.
2. Research
quesetions. Operationalizing research. Measurement. Four kinds of
numbers. Categorical vs. continuous. Levels of
scaling. Ch 3, pp 175-180.
Validity and reliability.
Ch 4.
3. Sampling:
non-probability and probability sampling. Ch 5, pp 173-175.
Univariate descriptive
statistics. Central tendency: mode, median, mean.
Dispersion: range, IQR. Variance,
standard deviation. The computational
Method. Z-score. Ch 6.
4. Distributions. The normal distribution, areas under the normal curve. Ch 7.
The normal curve anad
sampling distributions, standard errors. Ch 8.
5. Inferential
statistics, standard error of the mean, Ch 9. Confidence intervals,
S-test of a single mean.
Ch 10.
6. Tuesday –
review, prepare for the exam. Thursday – Midterm exam #1.
7. Review of the
midterm exam Bivariate descriptive statistics:
cross-tabulation,
discrete relationships. Ch 11.
8. Continuous
relationships: covariance, correlation, regression. Ch 13,
14.
9. Inferential
statistics: statistical significance – sampling variability – or not? The null hypothesis. Testing the null
hypothesis. Chi-squared. Ch 15, 16.
10.Tuesday – review, prepare for the exam. Thursday – midterm
exam #2.
11.Z-tests for difference between means, t-test for difference
between means. Ch 17.
12.t-test for difference between means, ANOVA. Ch 19. Experiments. Ch 20.
13.Survey research. Ch 21. Review and
prepare for final exam.
Required Text:
William D.
Richards, The Zen of Empirical Research.
Grading:
- Mid-term exam #1 week 6 12%
- Mid-term exam #2 week 10 21%
- Final exam: final
exam period 35%
- Assignments 22%
- Tutorial attendance and
participation 10%
The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will ear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty” and “Academic Discipline” (see the current Calendar, General Regulations section).
Cell phones: No cell phones permitted in lectures or
exams.
Turn them off!