Course Title: Social Work Honours Thesis 1
Part A: Course Overview
Course Title: Social Work Honours Thesis 1
Credit Points: 12.00
Terms
Course Code |
Campus |
Career |
School |
Learning Mode |
Teaching Period(s) |
HWSS2222 |
City Campus |
Undergraduate |
365H Global, Urban and Social Studies |
Face-to-Face |
Sem 1 2019, Sem 1 2020, Sem 1 2021, Sem 1 2022, Sem 1 2023, Sem 1 2024 |
Course Coordinator: Haidee Hicks
Course Coordinator Phone: +61 3 9925
Course Coordinator Email: haidee.hicks@rmit.edu.au
Course Coordinator Location: Building 8, Level 10
Course Coordinator Availability: By appointment
Pre-requisite Courses and Assumed Knowledge and Capabilities
Required Prior Study
You should have satisfactorily completed
HUSO2166 Foundations of Social Research
HUSO1222 Research Strategies (Honours) before you commence this course.
This course can only be undertaken in the final year of either the BH105 or BH106 program. The student must have achieved a Grade Point Average of 3.0 in Program studies up until the time of enrolment in this Course (over 6-8 Semesters) and a final grade of 70% or more in Research Strategies.
The student must have provided a proposal of research to the Course Coordinator, approved as evidence of student’s preparedness and capacity to undertake independent study.
Note: it is a condition of enrolment at RMIT that you accept responsibility for ensuring that you have completed the prerequisite/s and agree to concurrently enrol in co-requisite courses before enrolling in a course.
For your information go to RMIT Course Requisites webpage.
Course Description
This is the first of two courses that will culminate in the development of your Thesis. Your thesis, a representation of your research project constitutes the major piece of work undertaken during the Honours year.
During this course, you will build upon a topic, or research plan, and make significant progress towards the completion of your thesis. Through regular meetings with your course coordinator and supervisor and drawing upon materials from your other courses (Research Strategies (Honours)), you will develop a strong research design to inform your research.
Please note that if you take this course for a bachelor honours program, your overall mark in this course will be one of the course marks that will be used to calculate the weighted average mark (WAM) that will determine your award level. (This applies to students who commence enrolment in a bachelor honours program from 1 January 2016 onwards. See the WAM information web page for more information.)
Objectives/Learning Outcomes/Capability Development
Program Learning Outcomes
In this course you will develop the following program learning outcomes:
- apply a body of interdisciplinary knowledge, values and skills in working with and for society’s most vulnerable and marginalised individuals, families, groups and communities
- critically analyse, synthesise and reflect on issues of social disadvantage, marginalisation and oppression in both local and international contexts, and proactively work to promote social justice and human rights
- demonstrate creativity, critical thinking and practical reasoning when identifying and solving problems in diverse contexts within the discipline of social work
- use appropriate research methods to independently design and execute a professional or research project
- communicate using diverse formats and strategies to stakeholders within and external to your discipline
- work with others in a range of roles and contexts, demonstrating cultural, environmental and social awareness while promoting respectful, ethical and reflective practice
- apply initiative and ethical judgment in planning, problem solving and decision making in your current and continuing professional practice
Course Learning Outcomes
The objective of this course is to help you to develop your abilities to plan and manage a structured research project. It is designed to provide you with an opportunity to be responsible for the identification of project milestones, adherence to self-imposed deadlines, maintenance of a project database, and management of communications with research project stakeholders including supervisory staff.
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- demonstrate high order knowledge in a discipline area related to your research
- demonstrate thorough and extensive knowledge of relevant contemporary literature
- prepare and present professional academic papers
- apply theoretical understanding of the interpretation of substantive findings
- develop and sustain a substantial argument over the length of the thesis
- apply critical and cogent analysis skills
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- demonstrate high order knowledge in a discipline area related to your research,
- demonstrate thorough and extensive knowledge of relevant contemporary literature,
- prepare and present professional academic papers,
- apply theoretical understanding of the interpretation of substantive findings,
- develop and sustain a substantial argument over the length of the thesis,
- apply critical and cogent analysis skills.
Overview of Learning Activities
RMIT will provide you with resources and tools for learning in this course through our online systems.
There are services available to support your learning through the University Library. The Library provides guides on academic referencing and subject specialist help as well as a range of study support services. For further information, please visit the Library page on the RMIT University website and the myRMIT student portal.
You will be expected to seek further resources relevant to the focus of your own learning.
The research thesis component will incorporate the following tasks:
- Preparation of a research thesis
- Development of a literature review
- Articulation of methodological framework and methods of data collection and analysis
Overview of Learning Resources
You will be able to access a wide range of resources and content for your course from the student portal, myRMIT, and the RMIT Library. These resources will include book chapters, journal articles, media articles, lecture notes, bibliographies for supplementary reading, video and links to external websites.
Overview of Assessment
You will receive formative feedback on the progress of your thesis in this course that will assist you to progress your research and thesis development.
Assessment Task:
HWSS2222 & HWSS2223 |
10,000-12,000 word thesis submitted end year |
You will be assessed on how well you meet the course’s learning outcomes and on your development against the program learning outcome.
You will undertake two milestone tasks in this course to demonstrate adequate progress. This includes a topic registration and class presentation. Successful completion of both milestone tasks is required for progression to Honours Thesis 2. Students who do not fulfil this requirement will receive a Fail grade for the course.
Based upon the academic judgement of your supervisors that you have achieved adequate progress, an interim grade of NEX will be applied at the conclusion of the semester in which you study this course. This grade indicates that no assessment is scheduled at this time. This reflects the final and summative examination process that your final thesis will undertake at the end of the second semester. At that time, this result will mirror the result allocated to your thesis.
There will be one formal assessment task to be submitted during semester two in HWSS2223. This will be a research-based monograph of 10,000 - 12,000 words (maximum).
The milestone tasks in semesters one and two, and the final Honours Thesis meet each of the 6 Course Learning Outcomes
If you have a long-term medical condition and/or disability it may be possible to negotiate to vary aspects of the learning or assessment methods. You can contact the program coordinator or the Equitable Learning Service if you would like to find out more.
A student charter http://www.rmit.edu.au/about/studentcharter summarises your responsibilities as an RMIT student as well as those of your teachers.
Your course assessment conforms to RMIT assessment principles, regulations, policies, procedures and instructions