Training Programmes
Short Course Registration
Interested applicants can register for SSR Short Courses via NUS L3AP Portal.
Upcoming Programmes and Courses
Participatory Research for Social Services (January 2025)
This course provides an overview of participatory research designs and methods that can be applied to social and community services. Participatory research is distinct from other research approaches in its focus on engaging service users and ordinary people to be actively involved in decisions that shape the research or services that affect them. People’s participation in decision-making processes allows them the opportunities not only to voice their views, but also to have those views considered and incorporated into research and service designs. Participatory approaches place all stakeholders on level-playing ground and encourages users, service providers, researchers, policy-makers and other members to collaborate, share and co-own research that provides more effective solutions and services for users.
At the end of the course, participants are expected to achieve the following objectives:
• Understand the principles, values and rationales behind participatory research.
• Understand the different participatory research designs and methods, as well as their strengths and limitations.
• Suggest ways to carry out participatory research for social services.
Date
20 January 2025
Time
9:00AM – 6:00PM
Venue
NUS Kent Ridge Campus (The Shaw Foundation Building, Block AS7)
Trainer
Dr Hana Alhadad
An Introduction to Diverse Methods for Collecting Data from Children and Adolescents (February 2025)
Collecting data from children can be challenging as they may not have always have sufficient language and attention span to clearly articulate their needs, thoughts and feelings.
This course provides an introduction to diverse data collection methods that have been tried and tested by researchers to elicit and document data from children. These methods range from traditional ethnographic observation and interview to visual-based methods and those involving props. How these methods can be used will be explained in the context of social service-related studies that have employed them in their research design.
Participants will gain insights into the affordances and limitations of the methods. Tips for conducting research with children will also be shared.
At the end of the course, the participants will be able to: (1) describe the various ways of collecting data from children, (2) state the affordances and limitations of the various data collection methods; (3) design research that apply the data collection methods introduced.
Date
13 February 2025
Time
9:00AM – 6:00PM
Venue
NUS Kent Ridge Campus (The Shaw Foundation Building, Block AS7)
Trainer
Dr Seah Lay Hoon
Effective Use of Theory of Change for Social Services (March 2025)
This course on theory of change introduces participants to the theory-driven family of evaluation approaches and highlights the importance of making explicit the theory underlying any policy, programme or intervention as a basis for planning, implementation as well as monitoring and evaluation. A theory of change explains how the activities undertaken by a policy, a programme or an intervention contribute to a chain of action that leads to the intended outcomes. A theory of change is also a diagrammatic representation of a programme blueprint – it makes explicit the inputs, the activities, the outputs and the outcomes, and the links between them. Through this approach, the precise link between activities and the achievement of outcomes are more fully understood. With a detailed understanding of how change take places, the theory of change can potentially provide analytical insights into programme design at the planning stage. It can be useful for studying programme processes or implementation, as well as for identifying programme outputs and outcomes for monitoring and evaluation.
At the end of the course, participants are expected to achieve the following objectives:
• Understand the role of theory underlying policies, programmes and/or interventions.
• Understand the key concepts of theory of change and the analytical insights it can potentially provide to programme planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
• Learn how to develop and appraise theories of change through the use of case studies.
Participants conducting research projects in social and public services can apply these skills and knowledge to their research involving marginalised groups, to mitigate the power imbalance against them.
Date
6 March 2025
Time
9:00AM – 6:00PM
Venue
NUS Kent Ridge Campus (The Shaw Foundation Building, Block AS7)
Trainer
Dr Robyn Tan
Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services (August 2025)
The course is designed to provide social service professionals, community workers, policy-makers and researchers, with an introduction to theories and concepts of realist evaluation.
In community development and other fields of practice, interventions are often described as being complex and have outcomes that are dependent on context and are challenging to evaluate. Realist evaluation can help make sense of the outcomes from these types of interventions. Instead of providing one-off verdicts on its success or failure by asking, “Does the intervention work?”, realist evaluation examines “What works, for whom, under what circumstances and why?”. Recognising that interventions do not work in the same way for everyone, everywhere, realist evaluation seeks to systematically develop and test theory, specifically the causal mechanisms that are activated in different contexts, leading to different outcomes. It is multi-method and draws on both quantitative and qualitative methods.
At the end of the course, participants are expected to achieve the following objectives:
• Understand what realist evaluation is, when to adopt it and how it differs from other evaluation approaches
• Be able to describe the stages of a realist evaluation
• Understand the role of programme theory in realist evaluation and be able to develop and refine one
Date
28 August 2025
Time
9:00AM – 6:00PM
Venue
NUS Kent Ridge Campus (The Shaw Foundation Building, Block AS7)
Trainer
Dr Robyn Tan
Past Programmes
2024
- 5 & 6 Aug : Critical Discourse Analysis for Social Services
- 4 Jul : Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
- 18 Apr : Effective Use of Theory of Change for Social Services
- 27 Mar : An Introduction to Diverse Methods for Collecting Data from Children and Adolescents
- 29 Feb : Survey Design and Analysis
- 31 Jan : Participatory Research for Social Services
- 18 Jan : Effective Use of Theory of Change for Social Services
- 15 Jan - 15 Apr : Research Skills for Social Services Mentoring Programme
2023
- 20 Nov - 20 Feb : Research Skills for Social Services Mentoring Programme
- 16 Nov : Survey Design and Analysis
- 1 Nov : Effective Use of Theory of Change for Social Services
- 25 Oct : Participatory Research for Social Services
- 12 Oct : Effective Use of Theory of Change for Social Services
- 11 - 12 Sep : Critical Discourse Analysis for Social Services
- 3 Aug : Implementation Research for Social Services
- 3 Aug - 3 Nov : Implementation Research for Social Services Mentoring Programme
- 2 Aug - 3 Nov : Research Skills for Social Services Mentoring Programme
- 6 Jul : Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
- 11 May : Effective Use of Theory of Change for Social Services
- 8 May : Participatory Research for Social Services
- 27 Apr : Effective Use of Theory of Change for Social Services
- 25 Apr - 25 Jul : Research Skills for Social Services Mentoring Programme
- 12 Jan - 12 Apr : Research Skills for Social Services Mentoring Programme
2022
- 10 Nov : Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
- 13 - 14 Sep : Critical Discourse Analysis for Social Services
- 1 Aug - 1 Nov : Research Skills for Social Services Mentoring Programme
- 1 Jul : Participatory Research for Social Services
- 12 May - 13 May : Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
- 17 Jan - 11 Apr : Implementation Research for Social Services Mentoring Programme
- 17 Jan - 11 Apr : Research Skills for Social Services Mentoring Programme
- 17 Jan : Implementation Research for Social Services
2021
- 2 Aug - 2 Nov : Research Skills for Social Services Mentoring Programme
- 5 Oct : Participatory Research for Social Services
- 10 Aug - 11 Aug : Critical Discourse Analysis for Social Services
- 28 Jul - 29 Jul : Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
- 12 Jul - 13 Jul : Implementation Research for Social Services
- 11 Mar : Participatory Research for Social Services
- 9 Mar : Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
2020
- 26 Nov : Participatory Research for Social Services
- 23 Nov : Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
- 21 Aug - 17 Nov : Research Skills for Social Services (13 weeks)
- 2 Mar : Participatory Research for Social Services
- 5 Feb - 28 Apr : Research Skills for Social Services (13 weeks)
- 4 Feb & 11 Feb : Workshop on Implementation Research for Social Services
- 4 Feb - 28 Apr : Implementation Research for Social Services (13 weeks)
2019
- 12 Nov : Design Thinking for Community Work and Social Services
- 13 Nov : Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
- 24 Jan - 17 Apr : Research Skills for Social Services (13 weeks)
- 23 Jan - 30 Jan : Workshop on Implementation Research for Social Services
- 23 Jan - 17 Apr : Implementation Research for Social Services (13 weeks)
2018
- 6 Aug - 1 Nov : Research Mentoring Programme (13 weeks)
- 30 Aug : Quantitative and Quantitative Analyses for Practice-Research
- Introduction to Realist Evaluation for Social Services
2017
- 2 Nov : Research Mentoring Programme (13 weeks)
- 4 May : Research Mentoring Programme (13 weeks)
