Scientific method, 7.5 credits

Profession - or Bachelor's degree of at least 180 credits of which at least the 120hp within behavioural science subjects; or Occupational therapist - or physiotherapy degree of 180 HE credits or Bachelor's degree in occupational therapy or physiotherapy; or Nurse degree of 180 HE credits or Bachelor's degree in nursing.

English and Swedish language skills equivalent to English A/English 6 and Swedish B/Swedish 3 at Swedish upper secondary school are also required.

On completion of the course, the student should be able to:

• identify, formulate, and problematise scientific issues of relevance to the disciplinary domain Work and Health.
• explain scientific theoretical concepts and their usage in relation to the disciplinary domain Work and Health.
• explain the differences between quantitative and qualitative research methods concerning research design, data collection and analytical methods; identify the advantages and disadvantages of the different research approaches; and understand how they supplement one another.
• critically review and evaluate scientific literature and research within quantitative and qualitative research.
• explain and reflect critically on research-ethical basic principles.

Main contents:

• Basic scientific theoretical knowledge.
• formulation of research questions.
• research ethics.
• quantitative research methodology including formulation of research questions, research design, data collection methods and statistical analytical methods.
• qualitative research methodology including formulation of research questions, research design, data collection - and analytical methods.
• critical review of scientific literature.

The teaching consists of a combination of distance education and scheduled campus teaching. The tuition forms at the campus teaching include lectures, seminars and group assignments. The distance education includes literature studies, group assignments, report writing, etc

At the campus teaching compulsory attendance at certain teaching parts can occur.

Examination takes place through individual, written examination, and a individual written assignment with oral presentation in seminars. The examination of the written assignment is assessed from both written contents and oral presentation.

The grading scale is Fail/Pass/Pass with distinction.

Attendance at compulsory lectures is required to obtain a passed grade. The course director assesses if ,and in the case, how absence can be compensated. Before student has participated in compulsory lectures or compensated absence in accordance with the instructions of the Course Director the student's course results will not be reported in LADOK.

Limitation of number examination sessions
The student has the right to participate in six examination sessions. If the student has not passed after four examination sessions, the student is urged to visit the study adviser.

Every time the student participates in the same test counts as an examination session. Submission of blank exam is counted as examination session. Examination session to which the student has registered but not participated in will not be counted as an examination session.

Examination will be provided during a time of two years after a possible cancellation of the course. Examination can take place according to an earlier literature list during a time of one year after the date when a major renewal of the literature list been made.

Course evaluation will be carried out according to the guidelines established by the Board of education and also according to evaluation routines within the Master's programme (one-year) in work and health.