An Investigation of the Curriculum Elements of the Research Methods Courses in Psychology at the World’s Top Universiti

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.