Theory of Science and Research Design for Physical and Environmental Geographers

This is a course in philosophy of science relevant to master students in physical and environmental geography. The course will demonstrate crucial principles of scientific sampling design and how one should avoid bias. The course elucidates the theories underpinning current theoretical and conceptual models to understand landscape and landform processes and their abiotic and biotic drivers. Through this course, students should get insights into the structure of scientific publications and reasoning, including research questions, hypotheses, models and the critical interpretation of results. In essence, it aims to enable students to perform a rational and critical interpretation and discussion of their master's project.

During the course, the student will develop their master project description, including a conceptual model, which will end up in Milestone 1.

On completion of the course, the student should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence:

Knowledge

The student...

• knows basic theories and models in physical and environmental geography and their implications for research design

• knows different ways of scientific reasoning, such as induction and deduction and their pros and cons

• can define a research theme at an advanced level and elaborate it into research aims, objectives, research questions, and hypotheses

• can connect various topics to applicable theories, models and appropriate research designs that will produce scientific statements based on empirical data

• knows the characteristics of good-quality research publications

Skills

The student...

• can critically reflect upon different perspectives in philosophy or theory of science relevant for their own work and for the discipline of geography

• can formulate academic arguments based on different epistemological positions or perspectives

• can outline the implications of different perspectives in philosophy or theory of science for research design

• is able to carry out a systematic search in the library, in scientific and other databases

• can interpret and evaluate data and literature critically 

• can argue scientifically, structure the argumentation and follow good scientific use of references 

• can identify ethical issues in a research project and register the project for ethical clearance 

• can define and frame an independent research project under supervision 

General competence

The student...

• can critically reflect upon the theory of science aspects and societal implications of their own research and academic area of expertise, including when communicating across disciplines or societal domains
• can critically reflect upon the relation between science/expertise and society
• can choose a general topic for a geographical research theme, develop it into a research framework with related aims and objectives that can be investigated within various time and resource limits
• can communicate, both in writing and orally, the design of a geographical research project with related aims, objectives and theory