Think of the exercises in the Doctoral Strategies Toolkit as a cross between a workbook and a journal. The
prompts evaluate your understanding of common doctoral-level skills and requirements, expanding your
perspective for a deepening level of research. With the twin goal of reflection and improvement, you are
encouraged to consider the prompts as a map, logging where you’ve been and where you still need to explore.
In this course, you have read research articles that discussed research methods. In future terms, you too will
choose a research methodology to collect data for your future PhD dissertation or DSW capstone study. These
are based on quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods research designs. A research design is the overall
blueprint of the study, and it will guide how the research questions, sample recruitment, data collection
procedures, and data analysis are conducted.
This week, you examine how other PhD Social Work and DSW alumni have collected data by reading their
methodology plans.
To Prepare
Review the Explore Methodologies website found in the Learning Resources.
For DSW students, look at the Methodology section in the DSW capstone study (Section 2) you found earlier in
the course
Tips
Don’t worry about all the details yet. You will be taking research methods courses for a comprehensive
examination of research designs. Now, the goal is to think about the ideas you have for your topic and research
problem in the context of how you might gather data. Reflect on the choices made by other researchers and
look for the connections between what they wanted to answer and how they sought the answer.
Sample Solution
