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The dissertation module provides an opportunity for students to design, pilot and carry out an ethically acceptable research project in one area of early childhood and thereby to select and apply specific appropriate methods and skills. This requires the demonstration of advanced personal study on a negotiated topic, which has been approved by, and will be supervised by, a relevant course tutor. Students will develop a firm understanding of current research and developments in education, health and community based work with young children and their families, using local, regional, national, European and other international perspectives. Students will focus on a number of major pieces of research in the specific area of early childhood studies.  Students will examine, critically evaluate  and apply generic research skills including methodology; data collection, interpretation and presentation; ethical practice and confidentiality.

i. Knowledge and Understanding
By the end of the module students will be able to:

a)  Critically appraise different research paradigms and their appropriateness to the study of early years
b)  Clearly define and justify a research problem in relation to its applicability and importance to the field of early years
c)  Justify the selection of appropriate research methods from the range available, for the research question(s) being addressed
d)  Justify methods to synthesise, analyse and critically evaluate information from a variety of courses such as primary and secondary data, and academic and professional literature about the field and that informs the understanding of the research question(s)
e)  Undertake careful and creative analysis, and to contextualise their own findings in relation to the established body of knowledge
f)  Critically evaluate their approaches to research identifying areas of strength and areas for improvement
g) Critically evaluate current research and literature on young children's learning and development
h) Understand the role research plays of personal and professional development and in relation to their PDP
i)  Employ ethical practices in line with the University’s code of conduct

ii Skills
By the end of the module students should have developed skills in:
a)  Utilise and interpret primary data and/or secondary sources
b)  Analyse a range of material and synthesise this with their own research evidence
c)  Demonstrate the ability to plan, organise and critically assess the development of research tasks
d)  Structure the dissertation and write with clarity of expression
e)  Demonstrate the ability to critically evaluate evidence and use this to construct an effective argument.

The Library Catalogue contains full details of the current reading list for this module. Further details may also be found in the Module Guide.