چكيده لاتين :
Undoubtedly, research can play an important role in the development and growth of
societies. Today, such criteria as the number of research workers, the number of publications
in scholarly journals, and research budget are applied for assessing the development of any
society. Thus producing well educated and skilled researchers is an important characteristic of
any successful higher education system. Consequently, research methods are taught at all levels
of higher education and across a wide range of disciplinary fields. Despite the importance of
teaching research methods, however, the literature on education and curriculum elements of
research methods courses is not extensive and there is a need for more scientific works on the
pedagogy of research methods. This study, therefore, was an attempt to evaluate curriculum
elements of research methods graduate courses in the field of psychology at the top universities
of the world. In line with this, the goals, contents, teaching methods, learning activities and
assessment methods of the research methods syllabuses in Psychology at top universities of the
world were examined. A qualitative approach and a content analysis method was used in order
to conduct this study. Data was collected from several syllabuses of research methods graduate
courses at the world's top universities. Accordingly, purposive sampling was used to select 13
universities from among 200 top universities of the world. The syllabuses of the most recent
courses of research methods in the field of psychology were then obtained from the universities'
websites. Then, five main curriculum elements of the syllabuses were evaluated, namely
curriculums' goals, contents, teaching methods, learning activities, and assessment methods.
Based on the findings, the primary goals of teaching research methods at the selected
universities in their order of importance were teaching students how to design and conduct
research in psychology, making students familiar with various scientific research methods to
understand psychological phenomena, enhancing students' critical thinking and search skills,
and making students study scientific research in Psychology. As with content, both qualitative
and quantitative research methods were considered in the relevant syllabuses. Considering the
content of quantitative research methods, the syllabuses focused on such elements as qualitative
research questions and hypotheses, design, variables, methods, measures and measurement,
sampling, data collection and analysis, descriptive and inferential statistics, interpretation of
results and research report writing. The most frequently discussed types of research designs
were experimental and quasi-experimental designs, including repeated measures, interactions,
and factorial design, two-group and multi-group designs, within-group designs, regression
design, correlational design, and survey design. With regard to the content of the qualitative
research methods, the specified syllabuses had focused on epistemological foundations and applications of qualitative methods, different types of qualitative research methods, and
qualitative research questions, sampling, instruments, data collection and analysis, and research
report writing. The most frequently discussed types of qualitative methods were
phenomenology, ethnography, thematic analysis, grounded theory, and narrative inquiry.
Furthermore, in presenting both qualitative and quantitative approaches to research, the
syllabuses focused on the same subjects as various research methods in psychology, the nature
of science, the philosophical foundations of research, research ethics, and reading of
psychological research reports. The selected universities used a combination of various
teaching methods for presenting the relevant subject matters. Most of the selected universities
used lecturing, problem-based, project-based, and lecture-based methods and students were
highly encouraged to actively participate in classroom discussions. Moreover, the related
curriculums involved such learning activities as writing research proposal, carrying out both
individual and group research projects, writing a scientific article using APA style, reviewing
literature, participating in psychological studies, critically thinking about the way scientific
information is presented in public media, carrying out weekly assignments, and doing practices.
Although the specified syllabuses focused on different methods of assessment, the most
common methods of evaluation were done based on the assignments give during the semester
and written exams. The results of these studies revealed that both qualitative and quantitative
approaches to research should be considered in teaching the research methods course, as this
is the case at top universities in the world. Furthermore, curriculum developers need to pay
more attention to such subject matters as philosophical and theoretical foundations of research
and research ethics when designing research methods curriculums. In addition, research
methods syllabuses should pay more attention to the improvement of students' scientific writing
skills. Moreover, active learning activities are required to make students involved in real world
experiences. Finally, process-oriented and performance-based assessments should replace
merely memory-based assessments.
