Instructors:
Prof. Dr. Sebastian Späth
Displayed in timetable as:
Reading Acad. Art.
Language of instruction:
English
Min. | Max. participants:
- | -
Comments/contents:
This course will be concerned with understanding and analyzing concurrent research articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals. Focusing on the specific topic „knowledge management“ as focal research area, each student will be assigned an article, that she will have to analyze in-depth. Following a general introduction and guideline, two articles are discussed by the course participants in each session. We want to understand and answer questions such as „what research design have the authors chosen“, „what are the main conclusions that we can draw from the study“, „what are the limits to generalizability“? Understanding overt and implicit assumptions and limitations enables students to critically assess the claims and conclusions made by authors and to be able to make use of appropriate studies in their own research endeavors.
Learning objectives:
Reading and understanding (English) academic articles requires skills and practice. Students attending this course should be able to:
- Perform a literature research covering a specific topic
- Understand the structure of research articles
- Extract important elements forming the foundationst of the study
- Critically analyze the research design of a given study
- Assess the reliability, validity, and generalizability of the study
- Assess the appropriateness of certain research design, understanding the advantages and disadvantages of reserach designs given a specific research focus.
Didactic concept:
After kick-off sessions and theoretical input covering the main aspects to look for, students will be assigned a paper that they are supposed to analyze.
In each session, one paper will be presented and discussed. Less focus should be put on the content of the article in question, and more focus on the design/theory/methodology of the article at hand.
- Understand the structure of the research article in question
- Extract important elements forming the foundation of the study
- Critically analyze the research design of the study
- Assess the reliability, validity, and generalizability of the study
- Identify the limits and boundaries of the research at hand.
- Evaluate the appropriateness of the research design at hand, the empirical and methodological choices made, understanding the advantages and disadvantages of research designs given a specific research focus and/or propose improvements to the reserach design.
Literature:
Literature will be made available in the course
Additional examination information:
Your grade will consist of your presentation and a discussion of another paper.
