HLTH464-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025

Research Approaches for Health and Sport

30 points

Details:
Start Date: Monday, 17 February 2025
End Date: Sunday, 22 June 2025
Withdrawal Dates
Last Day to withdraw from this course:
  • Without financial penalty (full fee refund): Sunday, 2 March 2025
  • Without academic penalty (including no fee refund): Sunday, 11 May 2025

Description

This course will develop students' specialist knowledge and skills to support postgraduate research and/or industry led projects. Philosophical, ethical and methodological issues influencing research design will be examined and applied to researching health or sport related issues.

Through critique and application, the principles of research design will be identified across the research continuum. The course requires students to demonstrate the application of their knowledge and understanding in relation to a specific methodology as utilised in health or sport research. Students will take an active role in applying this knowledge for the benefit of a wider audience.  The course requires students to analyse and write up a data set as a research project or, develop a research proposal, both of which are presented to a community of interest for critique. In doing this, students are demonstrating a critical awareness of current and emerging issues in an area of health or sport practice; demonstrating their leadership in analysing research data or research proposal development; communicating results back to the community of interest; and demonstrating the application of highly specialised knowledge to the relevant literature. In essence this is a capstone course which provides an opportunity for students to draw on their particular backgrounds, knowledge and expertise in order to produce a research report or proposal of relevance to a particular health or sport community.

Learning Outcomes

  • Critique important philosophical perspectives on research and justify the implications of these for their research design.
  • Critically analyse different research traditions and design strategies that affect knowledge development and application to practice.
  • Evaluate the ethical and cultural considerations related to research in New Zealand.
  • Engage in group processes to prepare and deliver peer teaching resources
  • Utilise experiential learning from workshops for research design decisions, including analysis.
  • Apply research design principles to produce a research report or proposal.
  • Present the outcomes of the report / proposal to an identified community of interest for peer critique and review.

Prerequisites

Subject to the approval of the Associate Dean - Academic.

Timetable 2025

Students must attend one activity from each section.

Intensive Block Course A
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 13:00 Wheki 451
17 Feb - 23 Feb
Intensive Block Course B
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 13:00 - 16:30 Otakaro 146 L1 Lecture Theatre
17 Feb - 23 Feb
Intensive Block Course C
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 09:00 - 16:30 Wheki 106
17 Feb - 23 Feb
Intensive Block Course D
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 16:30 Wheki 106
17 Feb - 23 Feb
Intensive Block Course E
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Monday 09:00 - 16:30 Rehua 529
14 Apr - 20 Apr
Intensive Block Course F
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Tuesday 09:00 - 16:30 Rehua 529
14 Apr - 20 Apr
Intensive Block Course G
Activity Day Time Location Weeks
01 Wednesday 09:00 - 16:30 Rehua 529
14 Apr - 20 Apr

Course Coordinator

Alison Dixon

Assessment

Assessment Due Date Percentage  Description
Assignment 24 Mar 2025 35% Critical appraisal of a methodological approach utilised in health / sports science research.
Experiential workshop 20% Due date: 15/16 April 2025.
Research Project or Research Proposal 45% Research Project, analysis of data. Project may involve qualitative or quantitative data. Written report and peer feedback OR Research proposal and peer feedback. Due date: 22 May / 30 May 2025

Textbooks / Resources

There is no set text for this course. Rather, students are expected to access appropriate resources to develop their knowledge of research methodologies. Besides the University of Canterbury library, the universities (Otago; Canterbury; Victoria; Auckland; AUT; Massey) and polytechnics (Otago, EIT; WINTEC) with postgraduate Masters of Health and or Sports Sciences programmes usually have their theses collections on line.  The design chapters will illustrate the application of various methodologies to the research process. These are excellent sources for research application.

The following are also recommended:

Creswell, John. W; Creswell, J. David (2017) Research Design (5th Edition). CA, USA. SAGE Publications, Inc.

Yilmaz, K. (2013) Comparison of Quantitative and Qualitative Research traditions: epistemological, ontological and methodological differences. European Journal of Education, Vol 48, No. 2, 311-325.

Richardson-Tench, M; Taylor, B; Kermode, S; Roberts, K. (2014) Research in Nursing Evidence for Best Practice (5th Edition). China. Cengage Learning Australia Pty Ltd

Thomas, J.R; Silverman, S; Nelson, J; (2015) Research Methods in Physical Activity 7th Edition.

Tolich, M; Davidson, C. (2018) Social Science Research in New Zealand. Auckland University Press. Auckland New Zealand.

SAGE Research Methods database, University of Canterbury Library.

Statistics Done Wrong

NZResearch has quite a few theses and journal articles that might be useful secondary sources.

Indicative Fees

Domestic fee $2,524.00

* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.

For further information see School of Health Sciences .

All HLTH464 Occurrences

  • HLTH464-25S1 (C) Semester One 2025