OVERVIEW

Social research provides practitioners and social workers with a valuable set of methods, techniques and tools that can, in socio-educational contexts, be fruitfully applied to evaluate interventions and thus improve them. This course intends to enrich the knowledge acquired by students in the first year (Design and evaluation of social and educational policies) and to make them experiment with specific approaches, methods and techniques.

AIMS AND CONTENT

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Recall and deepen the knowledge and methodological and technical skills needed for social and evaluative research in the field of educational, training and social policies; provide knowledge on some specific approaches to the evaluation of public policies; present and make the students to experience some techniques and tools used in social and evaluative research in these areas.

AIMS AND LEARNING OUTCOMES

1. Consolidate the knowledge of the concepts related to the evaluation of social and educational policies.

2. To know specifically some approaches to evaluation and to know how to apply them to concrete cases.

3. Consolidate the knowledge and experiment the social research and evaluation techniques already discussed in the first year of the master's degree.

4. Know and experiment new techniques of social and evaluative research.

5. Know some concepts and be able to apply some basic techniques of social statistics.

At the end of the course the student, in light of the need to evaluate an intervention in the social and / or educational field, must be able to: a) ask evaluation questions, b) analyze the objectives of the intervention and its mode of implementation , c) sketching an evaluation research design by identifying the most appropriate approach and techniques for the case, d) building evaluation indicators and being able to assign them differential values, e) construct tools for data collection, f) perform elementary analyzes of frequency distribution, g) prefigure the possible use of the data collected and analyzed.

TEACHING METHODS

Lectures with support of slides that will be uploaded on Aulaweb, presentation and critical discussion of case studies, group works and role playing.

SYLLABUS/CONTENT

The course involves the deepening of knowledge and methodological and technical skills related to the process of social and evaluative research acquired by the students with the course "Design and evaluation of social and educational policies" of the first year. After a reminder of the fundamental concepts of public policies and their evaluation, the phases of evaluative research will be illustrated and explored also through concrete examples and practical exercises. Some social research techniques used in this context will be experienced, with particular attention to group techniques and their use to construct of the program theory and for the definition and the differential weighting of evaluative indicators (Evaluative Brainstorming, Focus Group, Delphi, Nominal group technique, Scale of Obliged Priorities). They will then be treated the statistical techniques used in social research for data analysis, even with exercises under the guidance of the teacher. Particular attention will be devoted to the theory-driven evaluation, participatory evaluation and the use of counterfactual evaluation to estimate the effects of public policies. The course consists of 36 hours of lessons, where the lectures will alternate in group activities in presence.

RECOMMENDED READING/BIBLIOGRAPHY

Torrigiani C., 2010, Valutare per apprendere. Capitale sociale e teoria del programma, FrancoAngeli, Milano.

Bezzi C., 2013, Fare ricerca con i gruppi, FrancoAngeli, Milano.

Tomei G., 2016, Valutare gli outcome dei programmi complessi, FrancoAngeli, Milano.

The material on Aulaweb

To review the knowledge and skills acquired in the first year, it is recommended to all students to keep and review the following texts:

Palumbo M., 2002, Il processo di valutazione, FrancoAngeli, Milano.

Bezzi C., 2010, Il nuovo disegno della ricerca valutativa, FrancoAngeli, Milano.

Ferrera M., 2012, Le politiche sociali, Il Mulino, Bologna

TEACHERS AND EXAM BOARD

Exam Board

NADIA RANIA (President)

CLAUDIO TORRIGIANI (President)

LESSONS

LESSONS START

Second semester of the academic year

Class schedule

METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUE OF APPLIED SOCIAL RESEARCH

EXAMS

EXAM DESCRIPTION

For non-attending students, the exam consists of a written test followed, in the event of a positive outcome, by an oral exam at the next exam session.

Attending students can use the modality provided for non-attending students or carry out the written tests that will be held during the course. There will be a test about halfway through the course and a test before the start of the summer session. An oral exam will follow which can be taken in an official exam session.

ASSESSMENT METHODS

The written exam is a prerequisite to access to oral exam. Through the written exam and the oral exam the teacher verifies the acquisition by the student of the fundamental concepts covered in the teaching and the ability to relate to each other, the mastery of the knowledge and the technical language and competence in applying what she/he has learned in real problems.

Exam schedule