Unit name | Contemporary Debates in Lifestyle Behaviours and Public Health |
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Unit code | SPOLM0018 |
Credit points | 15 |
Level of study | M/7 |
Teaching block(s) |
Academic Year (weeks 1 - 52) |
Unit director | Dr. Li |
Open unit status | Not open |
Pre-requisites |
None |
Co-requisites |
None |
School/department | School for Policy Studies |
Faculty | Faculty of Social Sciences and Law |
Facilitating a change in health behaviours across the life span is a priority, particularly among those for whom clusters of poor lifestyle are common. It is becoming apparent that, in some cases, multidisciplinary research is not sufficient to address—in a comprehensive and effective way—challenging and complex issues within health and well-being research and/or application. Rather, interdisciplinary research is required to tackle these more complex and challenging issues. Interdisciplinary research does not merely result in new technical approaches, but rather new intellectual approaches (viz., new ways to conceptualize and think about a ‘real world’ challenges to health and well-being). Students will explore how the complexity of contemporary health and well-being research problems require researchers to move beyond the confines of their individual disciplines and work as part of interdisciplinary teams in which skills and disciplines are combined in a coordinated manner to stimulate new ways of addressing and tacking problems. Students will be exposed to the different stages of the interdisciplinary research process, ranging from an open-ended preliminary research phase through to how the research is carried out in practice. Examples of good and poor practice will be discussed and a wide range of topics discussed (e.g., why an interdisciplinary approach is needed, which disciplines should be involved, the personality and attributes required by researchers, involvement of end users/stakeholders, and challenges with contingency plans). Students will be presented with contemporary ‘real world’ problems and will be challenged to take an interdisciplinary approach. Via various teaching approaches (e.g., critical discussion and group debates, problem-based learning, case studies), students will work through problems adopting an interdisciplinary approach to develop constructive solutions. The unit will be team taught by colleagues from the Department for Health (Bath), Exercise, Nutrition and Health Sciences (Bristol), and Sport and Health Sciences (Exeter).
Unit aims:
To explore how theory, knowledge, concepts, methodology, and skills from distinct disciplines can be integrated in a co-ordinated manner to coherently address important issues, problems and challenges to health and well-being.
At the end of the unit students should have:
Lectures, group work, seminars, presentations.
One coursework of 4,000 words on a topic agreed with the Unit Convenor
Books on Interdisciplinary Research:
Peer-reviewed articles Focusing on Interdisciplinary Research: