Start: January 24, 2024

The course covers discussions on scientific perspectives and how these relate to problem formulation. The course therefore aims to increase students’ understanding of how the problem formulation process may differ across various disciplines. Furthermore, the course focuses on the purpose of problem formulation, how research problems may be formulated, and how the doctoral student can apply these skills in the formulation of their own research problems.

Course content

The course consists of the following main components:

• Review of scientific perspectives and different approaches to problem formulations
• Analyses of problem formulations in previous research within various disciplines
• Formulation of own research problem, research questions, and contributions  

Teaching and learning activities

The course is structured as a combination of lectures, seminar discussions, individual and group exercises, student presentations, and written assignments. The language of instruction and examination is English.

Before the first course meeting, each participant should deliver a short thesis idea paper (approx. 1,000 words) outlining the main research topic/idea/context of the dissertation (or article). Year of enrollment in the PhD program should also be indicated. The course mainly targets first (and second) year doctoral students, but senior doctoral students are also welcome.

Schedule

The course includes 5 Lectures and 3 seminars. Depending on the composition of the class/student seminar 2-3 might be run in split parallel format lead by each teacher where different students will be allocated based on their discipline. See the Syllabus for the schedule.  

Syllabus Problem Formulation with Schedule (196 Kb)

Contact

Course Faculty
Associate Professor Andrea Lucarelli, andrea.lucarelli@sbs.su.se
Associate Professor Sara Jonsson, sara.jonsson@sbs.su.se  

Registration

To register for the course, please contact the doctoral programme coordinator, Helene Olofsson, helene.olofsson@sbs.su.se