Your Research Project

John Marsden

For students taking the foundation degree in counselling at Blackburn College

Your Research Project

Second year students take a research project module in Semester A and Semester B of the second year.

The research project builds on the learning outcomes you have achieved in the first year of your course.

Helping You Succeed

In Semester A John Marsden will give weekly classes on writing the research project.

In Semester B John will provide tutorial support to students individually. You will be encouraged to book appointments with John via email.

The Moodle page for this module has a good set of resources and we shall use the discussion form to address any questions that crop up as we go along.

Subjects covered in Semester A Classes

• Introduction to the module• Completing your proposal and planning your project• Developing your literature review• Research ethics• Methodology• Methods of data collection• Sampling• Credibility• Data analysis• Phenomenology

Assessment

This module takes place over two semesters.

Six weeks into Semester A you will submit your research proposal and ethics form.

At the end of Semester B you will submit your project.

Word Counts

Proposal and ethics form: 800 words

Research project: 3200 words

The Task

Your task is to design and complete a credible piece of primary research on a counselling related topic.

You will be interviewing practitioners, collecting questionnaires, running focus groups and using a range of data collection methods.

You will write up your research in a report.

The Format of your Report

1. You will provide an abstract.

2. You will write an introduction, outlining the structure of your report.

3. You will analyse your research question, describing how it was formulated and refined.

4. You will include a literature review, outlining your search strategy and synthesising your findings.

The Format of your Report

5. You will define and evaluate your methodology, including your chosen methods of data collection and analysis.

6. You will present and discuss your findings

7. You will make recommendations and draw conclusions

8. You will provide an accurate set of references and a bibliography

Enjoy!