12. Module ContentIn this module you will learn about the process of knowledge construction and evaluation in contemporary sport and exercise science. You will examine a range of epistemological approaches and explore the philosophical implications of adopting different methods of constructing knowledge. You will look at issues around research design, including an examination of ethical and governance issues. You will critically examine the methods by which research is conducted, looking at the internationally accepted guidelines for randomised controlled trials and other prominent methodologies in the sport and exercise science literature. You will examine the contemporary debates around null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) and magnitude based statistics and also examine the anticipated development of data synthesis techniques. Sport and exercise science is also an applied endeavour and students need to be capable of effectively disseminating complex technical data to a lay audience.At the successful completion of this module you will be comfortable with the Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) and learn how to make decisions about the use of appropriate statistical tests and interpret the analysis outputs. The module has two strands, one strand is a lecture / workshop programme covering the conceptual basis of scientific knowledge construction. The second strand is practical and will give students an opportunity to work through the design of studies, discuss ethical and practical issues in research and work through increasingly complex data sets using SPSS. In strand one, the content will cover, the philosophical basis of scientific knowledge construction, the debates around NHST and magnitude based statistics. Mid-module, there will be scope to give the module more specific depth, with the exercise and health students looking at epidemiology in more depth whilst the sport performance students will focus more on the research in the specific disciplines of physiology, biomechanics and sport psychology. The final theme common to both route ways will focus on applied research and the dissemination of research and assessment data to the lay audience.In the practical workshops students will use SPSS to describe data and conduct inferential tests common in the discipline areas. This will cover tests of difference and association, using univariate, multivariate data sets. There will also be opportunities to examine data synthesis techniques.