Summary activities storyboard
The task of the interdisciplinary modules coordinated by the faculty members is to formally introduce the PhD students to the research “profession”. Their function is therefore primarily technical-scientific. To this end, they also use workshop strategies.
Interdisciplinary Module November-December 2019
The initial months of the 2019-2020 PhD course were dedicated to building and putting basic research skills into practice, with particular attention to methodological aspects. In particular, it touched on qualitative, quantitative and mixed research thanks to the participation of leading Italian lecturers in each of these fields. The goal was to provide practical, reflective and metareflective tools to help the PhD students from the XXXV cycle and previous cycles focalize their research projects.
Secondly, the PhD students were introduced to academic writing. In particular, the module focused on:
1. Writing a review, followed by the preparation of a review by the XXXIV and XXXIII cycle PhD students. The students were accompanied in this task by the faculty and their peers and the outcome can be viewed at the following LINK.
2. Writing scientific articles. With support from Firenze University Press (FUP), the PhD students were introduced to the journal classification system, the main bibliographic research tools, literary genres and international journal layouts. International figures were also involved in this activity (Prof. Martha Kaschny Borges of the University of Santa Caterina in Brazil).
Interdisciplinary Module May 2020
The second interdisciplinary module further investigated four areas:
1. A large part was dedicated to quantitative research. The PhD students were helped to find out more about descriptive statistical research tools and introduced to some inferential statistical tools. The module, whose goal was to introduce the PhD students to the main quantitative research tools, was put together in partnership with the FORLILPSI department’s newly set-up statistics lab – VIRALab.
2. The PhD students were introduced to the ethical topics and issues arising in research thanks to collaboration with the University of Florence Ethical Research Commission.
3. The PhD students were introduced to Research Projects of National Interest (PRIN) by some faculty involved in these projects.
4. A particularly big online module concerned methodologies used in building a systematic review, which is a fundamental stage in all research projects.