The class has three broad goals, which I enumerate below. Each goal is associated with a number of specific learning outcomes, which you should be able to perform as the class concludes after two semesters. Students who complete the class should be able to
- formulate an empirical research question based on existing literature. This includes
- providing an overview of existing research on a specific topic,
- motivating their research question with coherent theoretical arguments,
- systematically building on (and possibly extending) existing research on a specific topic.
- prepare and analyze existing survey data. For this, students
- understand different data structures,
- explore, clean, and combine different data,
- use statistical methods appropriate to answer their research question.
- document their empirical research project by
- writing a research report,
- providing materials to reproduce their research from data acquisition through data preparation to data analysis,
- presenting their research project in class.
Although the substantive focus of the class is on child and youth development, all learning outcomes can be readily transferred to other topics in empirical social research. Many of the skills practiced in class (e.g., summarizing existing knowledge, script-based data preparation and analysis, writing and presenting) are also valuable for jobs outside academia.