What kind of courses enable a student to learn the Scientific Method?
The Scientific Method is a common learning goal of most core curricula around the country. Of course we want our students to understand this most important achievement of scientists. How best to ensure that understanding? Are hands-on experiments in laboratories the only way possible?
Here is a syllabus from psychology that addresses the scientific method.
A graduate course in political science at Duke... is this not the scientific method?
A UCSD grad course in social science research methods.
A hilariously over-ambitious UC Berkeley course in advanced econometric methods for undergraduates... by a great researcher, but really, could more than a handful of undergraduates succeed here?
posted by Unknown @ 2:10 AM
3 Comments:
the berkeley undergrad course is only overly ambitious if it is taught poorly and focuses more on proofs/theorems than its syllabus seems to indicate. if it truly focuses on applied approaches of those methods and applications using real data, then it is a great undergraduate course.
This comment has been removed by the author.
the ucsd course is definitely not appropriate for graduate students because it combines all methods (experimental, observations, qualitative, etc.) into a single course. each of these courses could be its own course onto itself as it is at may universities. but this would make for an excellent undergraduate course, especially for a core curriculum requirement on social scientific methodology. i wish i had the opportunity to take a course such as that one as an undergraduate.
Post a Comment
<< Home