WHAT IS THE RESEARCH SUMMER SCHOOL?
The Research Summer School is a week-long intensive program that is aimed at honing research and analytical skills. Students of the Summer School will be able to critically engage with contemporary research in their own disciplines and develop a unique skill set to carry out research independently. Training in the Summer School will focus on understanding the fundamentals of research, research methodology and statistical reasoning, literature review and reference management, academic writing, and research proposal writing.
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WHY DO YOU NEED IT?
• Research is an important part of the undergraduate, and postgraduate curricula in India and abroad.
• Research can be pursued by individuals in any educational or vocational field.
• Knowledge of the basics in research helps to understand and critically analyse scholarly work.
• Research helps to answer questions in a scientific manner rather than basing your conclusions on intuition, “common sense” or others’ views.
• Various vocations often require employees to analyse contemporary trends and innovations, which if not taken up scientifically would lead to invalid conclusions.
HOW DO WE TEACH RESEARCH?
The Summer School aims to cover the diverse elements of modern research. Successful applicants will be required to take an online pre-requisite course in order to take part in the Summer School. We use practical problems and examples from daily life to explain course content. Participants’ ideas will be built upon and the Summer School will be contextualized to suit their needs and/or interests. The aim of the Summer School is to expose participants to the field of research through activity-based learning. Participants will be given take-home exercises and tasked with generating their own research output, which will be presented on the concluding day of the Summer School. This will ensure that participants are able to successfully apply research skills to their research ideas independently.
RESOURCE PERSONS
MP Research Personnel: Anirudh Tagat --- Hansika Kapoor, PhD --- Sumati Thusoo --- Sampada Karandikar --- Aneree Parekh
Krishna Warrier, Communication Skills Professor
SCHEDULE (9AM - 3PM, tentative)
Day 0: Pre-requisite: Online Course in Research Methodology and Statistical Reasoning
Day 1: Fundamentals of Research
Importance of research --- What is scientific research? --- Researcher skills --- Basic concepts in research --- Academic and market research --- Qualitative and quantitative research --- Ethics in research --- Q&A and feedback --- Take home exercises
Day 2: Literature Review and Reference Management
Importance of literature review --- Types of research articles --- Database navigation (credibility of sources and keyword search) --- Identifying relevant literature --- Compiling a literature review --- Importance of accurate citations - -- Citation styles and manuals --- Research management software --- Mendeley workshop --- Q&A and feedback --- Take home exercises
Day 3: Writing a Research Proposal
Importance of writing a research proposal --- Difference between a research proposal and a research paper --- Idea generation --- Choosing a research topic --- Basic structure of a research proposal --- Components of a proposal (title, research question, rationale, literature review, theoretical framework, data collection and analysis plan) --- Introduction to grant proposal writing --- Q&A and feedback --- Take home exercises
Day 4: Quantitative and Qualitative Data Analysis
Epistemology --- Overview of types of data and levels of measurement --- Data sources --- Statistical software --- MS Excel --- SPSS --- Stata --- R --- Understanding data output --- Qualitative data --- Collecting data --- Interview schedules --- Thematic and content analysis --- Q&A and Feedback
Day 5: Academic Writing
Importance of academic writing styles --- Ethical standards in publishing --- Strategies in academic writing --- Writing clearly and concisely --- Grammar and tone --- Organisation and Structure --- Accuracy, precision, responsibility and objectivity --- Q&A and feedback --- Take home exercises
Day 6: Development of Research Ideas and Research Proposal
Group activities on brainstorming and idea generation --- Writing your research proposal --- A primer on making effective presentations --- Q&A and Feedback
Day 7: Presenting Your Research Idea
Individual presentations --- Group discussions --- Q&A and Feedback
ELIGIBILITY
Undergraduate students,
Postgraduate students,
MPhil students,
PhD students,
Professionals or Faculty pursuing research or practice
Any person with basic understanding and interest in research
Testimonials for the Third Annual Research Summer School (2018)
“I enrolled in this course to get some idea of how research is done, because I did not have any research experience in this area, I had many misconceptions that are now clarified.”
- Dhwani Nagda (Student, Psychology)
“The three things I liked about this course are: the structure of the course; the faculty, their extensive knowledge and amicable nature; and the happy and enjoyable ambience here.”
- Nevin George (Student, Economics)