TL4187 Research Methods for Sport Assignment - University of Central Lancashire, UK

Brief rationale for the research question and an outline of the project's research aims and objectives.

Introduce the reader to some of the main literature related to your topic. What does the literature tell us? Describe the literature and outline what is useful about the literature, and also and limitations (critical analysis).

You should now have some justification for your own research. It might be to expand an existing area of work. It could be that you want to test some ideas in a particular area. It could be that there is a gap in the literature - this could be theoretical, applied or methodological.

Develop a clear aim and subsequent objectives or research questions. The objectives/questions should show how you intend on achieving your aim. Example.

Aim: To analyze the effectiveness of key sporting stakeholders in supporting people to alleviate negative mental health issues.

Objective one/research question one: Identify which stakeholders (delivery organizations) prioritise the delivery of mental health programmes in sport and explain their contribution.

What are key stakeholders doing to prioritise the delivery of mental health programmes in sport and what is their contribution?

Objective two/research question two: Evaluate the benefits of the programmes from the stakeholders' perspectives. How effective do the stakeholders' perceive their programmes to be?

Objective three/research question three: Critically analyze the impact that the programmes have on the participants. From a critical perspective, what impact do the programmes have on the participants?

Objective four/research question four: Consider how the findings can be utilized to inform relevant policy and practice in the sports sector.

How can the findings be utilized to inform relevant policy and practice in the sports sector?

Outline of (and justification for) the research design and data gathering/analysis approach taken.

Briefly touch upon which paradigm your research aligns to (ontological position and epistemological approach). Are you using a specific methodology?

What methods are you using - sampling?

How are you analysing the data? Be clear and think of this as showing your working out (use the appendixes). If you are using coding say within a thematic analysis I would expect to see a transcript and the coding framework.

This is just a pilot study. If using quants then just do some questions for a survey that you might develop for your main research. If quals, then do a one to one interview - you could do more for your dissertation or even do focus group interviews. If you're using mixed methods you could do either or. You could focus on one objective / research question.

Ethical considerations. A short section stating your ethical position (insider our outsider). If using quals link to appendix for information sheet and consent form. There are also a couple of UCLan standard documents that you need to complete (see files section). These should be included as appendices.

Presentation of results and discussion of findings

What have you found from the pilot study in relation to your objectives/research questions? Present the results clearly for the reader and discuss in relation to previous literature. Do the findings support the findings in the previous literature. Are there differences? Do they tell you something completely different? Do they make you question some of the previous findings?

Summary of the strengths, weaknesses and limitations of the approach employed

Brief section on what worked well and did not - could focus on your research approach, perhaps you found that your objectives weren't clear enough. Maybe you found that you needed to be clearer. Perhaps you even found that your interviewing skills were not as effective as you thought. How will you address these issues?

Concluding remarks with identification of the potential implications of your findings, be they practical, theoretical, managerial or applied.

Summarize the main points from your findings. Why are they useful from either a theoretical perspective or in an applied way (informing policy or practice)? So, it might enable us to understand theory better, or it could be that they might be useful to sports managers say working in a national governing body as they are responsible for delivering these types of programmes.

Attachment:- Research Methods for Sport Assignment File.rar