January Assessment 2024
Assessment paper and instructions to candidates:
SP401 - Understanding Policy Research
2023/24 syllabus only (not for resit candidates)
Instructions to candidates
This paper contains FORTY-FIVE questions.
Answer all questions. Marks available are written next to each question.
You do not need to copy out the text of the question in your answer booklet. Just write the question number and letter, for example: 1 (a).
The total exam is not expected to exceed 4,000 words.
Time Allowed: This is a time limited assessment to be taken at anytime within a 24-hour window; you will have 3.5 hours to upload your script from the time of download.
Upper word limit: 4,000 words
You are supplied with: No additional materials
Calculators: Calculators are not allowed in this exam
• Specify the question numbers that you answered in the boxes provided on the coversheet for submission, where you are asked to do so.
• If you include a graph, picture and/or table in your answer, this is not included in your overall word limit. If a graph/picture/table is included in the appendices, it will not count towards your word limit. However, please note that appendices may not be read and will not be marked. Do not put essential material in an appendix.
• Where possible, use the formatting provided. If you need to make formatting
adjustments, please use a large font (for example Arial or Helvetica pt15, which can easily be read on a tablet), line spacing with a minimum of 1.5 lines, left alignment, and margins of about one inch (2.54cm) on all four sides of the page.
• This is a time limited assessment to betaken at anytime within a 24-hour window; you will have 3.5 hours to upload your script from the time of download. The submission portal for this assessment will close at 12pm midday (GMT) Wednesday 10th January 2024. You are advised to spend no more than 3 hours completing this assessment (plus 15 minutes reading time); leave the last 15 minutes for preparing and uploading your work to Moodle.
• If you have any queries during the assessment window, please email
socialpolicy.msc@lse.ac.uk. Please do not contact course convenors directly with any queries. We will take forward any relevant queries on your behalf. Please remember that you must not include any reference to your candidate number in your query. Any cohort-level responses will be communicated to all via Moodle announcements for each courses, where applicable.
• In case of technical issues you should contact[email protected]with the subject heading: Assessment inquiry and course code. Please copy (CC)
[email protected]to your email inquiry.
Assessment questions
SECTION I (10 POINTS)
1. Does digital literacy affect parents’ perceptions of access to childcare benefits in the Netherlands? (Hummel et al. 2023)
In this statement, “digital literacy” is an example of a(n) …
a. Explanatory variable b. Outcome variable c. Hypothesis
d. None of the above (1 Mark)
2. In Pakistan, informal cultural practices determine welfare provision more than the decisions of formal bureaucrats. (Farwa & Henman 2023)
In this statement, “welfare provision” is an example of a(n) …
a. Explanatory variable b. Outcome variable c. Hypothesis
d. None of the above (1 Mark)
3. Can social science provide policy-guidance without undermining some basic democratic values? (Thoma 2023)
This statement is an example of a(n) …
a. Explanatory variable b. Outcome variable c. Hypothesis
d. None of the above (1 Mark)
4. An anti-corruption initiative in Uganda will prevent corruption only if the norms that
encourage behaving with integrity are already sufficiently robust. (Buntaine et al. 2023) This statement is an example of a(n) …
a. Explanatory variable b. Outcome variable c. Hypothesis
d. None of the above (1 Mark)
5. Irregular workspaces, including bars and other sites at which yingchou (business drinking
activities) takes place, are significant sites of sexual harassment in China. (Duan 2023) In this statement, “irregular workspaces” are an example of a(n) …
a. Explanatory variable
b. Outcome variable
c. Hypothesis
d. None of the above (1 Mark)
6. In the pandemic’s earliest months, European countries generally invested in parental welfare through paid leave schemes. However, Portugal restricted its paid leave welfare provision
while it expanded provision across many other domains. (Daly & Ryu 2023) In this statement, Portugal is an example of a(n) …
a. Typical case
b. Deviant case
c. Extreme case
d. Diverse case
e. Influential case (1 Mark)
7. In Quebec, neighbourhoods where parents compete for limited childcare slots generally suffer worse childcare quality. Poor neighbourhoods with limited childcare slots display both
low and high childcare quality. (Chandler & Dilmaghani 2023)
In this statement, poor neighbourhoods are an example of a(n) …
a. Typical case
b. Deviant case
c. Extreme case
d. Diverse case
e. Influential case (1 Mark)
8. Economic crises usually produce uniform dissatisfaction with healthcare provision. But in Ireland, an economic crisis produced uneven dissatisfaction with healthcare provision: ideologically right-leaning survey respondents were much more dissatisfied than ideologically left-leaning respondents. (Popic & Burlacu 2022)
In this statement, ideologically right-leaning respondents are an example of a(n) …
a. Typical case
b. Deviant case
c. Extreme case
d. Diverse case
e. Influential case (1 Mark)
9. Healthcare mobilisation was particularly fast in India, which spurred subnational institutions in Brazil and the USA to follow suit. (Greer et al. 2022)
In this statement, Indian government is an example of a(n) …
a. Typical case
b. Deviant case
c. Extreme case
d. Diverse case
e. Influential case (1 Mark)
10.Although electoral strategy determined politicians’ willingness to enact police reform in Brazil and Argentina, police reform never materialised in Colombia despite its electoral promise. (González 2019)
In this statement, Colombia is an example of a(n) …
a. Typical case
b. Deviant case
c. Extreme case
d. Diverse case
e. Influential case (1 Mark)
SECTION II (20 POINTS)
Look at the following chart showing response rates to the UK Labour Force Survey (LFS).
Notes. Initial interviews are sought from cohorts of eligible in-scope households in each quarter of the year. (The horizontal axis shows year-quarter.) Response rates refer to the fraction of eligible in-scope households in Great Britain that provide an interview each year-quarter (and exclude imputed cases). Interviews are sought from households at fve ‘waves’: the frst round of interviews per cohort is Wave 1, and further interviews are sought with the same households at each of the next four quarters (Waves 2–5). The Total response rate is the response rate averaged across all waves at each year-quarter. Source: ONS Labour Force Survey Performance and Quality Monitoring Report, 15 August 2023.
11. Is the design of UK LFS (a) cross-sectional, (b) longitudinal, or (c) repeated cross- sectional? (1 Mark)
12. Referring to the chart, write a brief commentary (up to 5 sentences maximum) about LFS response rates. (5 Marks)
13. Write a short commentary (up to 5 sentences maximum) about the implications of the response rate trends for the reliability of quantitative research based on the LFS. (5 Marks)
14. How might the UK ONS address the issues associated with non-response in the LFS to get reliable statistics about the UK labour market? (Write up to 6 sentences maximum.) (6 Marks)
15. Provide THREE examples of administrative record data. (3 Marks)
SECTION III (20 POINTS)
Imagine that all seven members of the SP401 Teaching Team conducted a multi-researcher ethnography during Welcome Week in September 2023. As part of that research activity, the instructors participated in the Welcome Week activities and spoke to members of the incoming MSc cohort — yes, that’s you! — and the instructors conferred together about their notes each evening. They wanted to learn how your cohort socialised, as a group, into self-identifying as “social policy researchers” over the course of that week.
16. Identify one of this research design’s ontological assumptions (2 Marks)
17. Identify one of this research design’s epistemological assumptions (2 Marks)
18. For each of the four criteria that govern the rigour of qualitative research — credibility, confirmability, dependability, and transferability — identify the most closely analogous criterion that governs the rigour of quantitative research. (4 Marks)
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Qualitative research
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Quantitative research
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Credibility
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Transferability
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Dependability
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Confirmability
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19. Define respondent validation. (1 Mark)
20. Define triangulation. (1 Mark)
21. In four sentences or fewer, explain why triangulation strengthens a qualitative research study’s credibility. (3 Marks)
22. In what sense is an ‘extreme’ case similar to a ‘deviant’ case? In what sense are they different? (3 Marks)
23. In four sentences or fewer, define reflexivity and distinguish it from positionality. (4 Marks)
SECTION IV (40 POINTS)
In a recent randomized control trial conducted in a suburban school district, researchers aimed to assess the impact of modern technological interventions on student math performance. Two hundred students in the 10th grade were randomly assigned to either a treatment group or a control group. The treatment group received tablets loaded with interactive math software that adapted to each student's learning pace and provided instant feedback. In contrast, the control group continued with traditional textbook methods. The intervention lasted for a full academic year. At the end of the year, both groups took a standardized math exam to measure their performance.
24. What was the primary objective of the RCT conducted in the suburban school district? In your answer, be sure to specify the independent variable and the dependent variable. (3 Marks)
25. How did the learning resources differ between the treatment and control groups in the suburban school RCT? (2 Marks)
26. Describe two possible sources of selection bias that could have been present in this study. (4 Marks)
27. Describe two strategies the researchers could employ to address or mitigate the biases you described in your answer to Question 26. (4 Marks)
28. With specific reference to the suburban school RCT, describe two ethical limitations of RCTs. (4 Marks)
29. With specific reference to the suburban school RCT, describe two practical limitations of RCTs. (4 Marks)
30. With specific reference to the suburban school RCT, describe two methodological limitations of RCTs. (4 Marks)
A mayor introduces a programme throughout her city that provides job training for people who have been unemployed longer than six months. Two years after the programme commenced, the city’s ten neighbourhoods have reported divergent unemployment trajectories: the eight smallest neighbourhoods have reported huge reductions in unemployment; the two largest neighbourhoods have reported small increases in unemployment. Nonetheless, the mayor arranges a press conference during which she celebrates city-wide success in reducing unemployment, and she attributes the reduction to the training programme she introduced.
31. Does logical causation support the mayor’s inference that the training programme was successful? Justify your answer in one sentence. (2 Marks)
32. Which set-theoretic research design describes a comparison of the unemployment trajectories between the ten neighbourhoods that received the training programme; ‘most- similar systems’ or ‘most-different systems’? Justify your answer in one sentence. (2 Marks)
33. Is a neighbourhood’s small size a necessary condition of the programme’s success? Justify your answer in one sentence. (2 Marks)
34. Describe and differentiate between the following approaches to evidence synthesis: (i) systematic review; (ii) rapid review assessment; and (iii) meta-analysis? (5 marks)
35. “It’s not possible to synthesize evidence from qualitative research.” To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement? Give reasons for your argument(s). (4 marks)
SECTION V (10 POINTS)
36. A team of researchers hypothesises that introducing a new interactive teaching module in elementary schools will significantly enhance the mathematical abilities of students. They decide to test the effectiveness of this module by assessing the students' math scores before implementing the module and then comparing those scores to the scores obtained after a year of using the module.
This research design can best be described as which of the following:
a. A randomized controlled trial
b. A quasi-experiment
c. A pre-post design with no comparison group
d. A correlational research design
e. None of the above (1 Mark)
37. Justify your answer to Question 36 in one sentence: (1 Mark)
38. A team of researchers hypothesised that planting community gardens in urban neighbourhoods would lead to improved dietary habits among residents. They noted that the recent establishment of community playgrounds was closely associated with a neighbourhood’s decision to plant a garden, but wasn't directly related to dietary habits except through the presence of a community garden. The team used the variation in playground establishment to measure the local average treatment effect of community garden planting on dietary habits.
This research design can best be described as which of the following:
a. A randomized controlled trial
b. A quasi-experiment
c. A pre-post design with no comparison group
d. A correlational research design
e. None of the above (1 Mark)
39. Justify your answer to Question 38 in one sentence: (1 Mark)
40. A team of researchers posited that exposure to information and role models could diminish gender-based implicit bias. They randomly selected thirty undergraduate students to be exposed to these informational sessions and role models, while another set of thirty undergraduates from the same university went through standard orientation exercises. Subsequently, all sixty participants took an implicit bias test, and the outcomes were juxtaposed and evaluated.
This research design can best be described as which of the following:
a. A randomised controlled trial
b. A quasi-experiment
c. A pre-post design with no comparison group
d. A correlational research design
e. None of the above (1 Mark)
41. Justify your answer to Question 40 in one sentence: (1 Mark)
42. A researcher conducted an ethnography of how homelessness shapes the decision to apply for welfare benefits. The researcher approached, and lived with, unhoused people for an extended period of time.
This research design can best be described as which of the following:
a. A randomised controlled trial
b. A quasi-experiment
c. A pre-post design with no comparison group
d. A correlational research design
e. None of the above (1 Mark)
43. Justify your answer to Question 42 in one sentence: (1 Mark)
44. A team of researchers hypothesises that private tutoring increases children’s performance on standardised exams. The researchers gather information from administrative data about exam performance of children who completed a private tutoring programme.
45. This research design can best be described as which of the following: a. A randomised controlled trial
b. A quasi-experiment
c. A pre-post design with no comparison group
d. A correlational research design e. None of the above
46.Justify your answer to Question 44 in one sentence: (1 Mark)