Other fields
Methodology Match was made for arts and humanities researchers. The same game could teach research design in other fields. These editions are planned; none of them exists yet.
- Available now Arts and humanities The game on this site. It has 108 cards in two decks, with objects of study such as painting and recorded music, and methods such as close reading and studio practice. Central card: Position
- Planned Social science The same twelve positions and the same rules, with objects such as a school, a workplace or a policy, and surveys, secondary data and case studies in place of the studio. Central card: Position
- Planned Psychology Fewer positions and more cards about study design, including experiments, scales, diaries and the main families of statistics. The round-table would ask whether the design can support a causal claim. Central card: Position, and the kind of claim
- Early idea Natural sciences Scientists rarely choose a philosophical position, so here the central card is the kind of claim you want to make, such as a description, a measurement, a comparison or a cause. Every method card would say which claims it can support. Central card: Claim
What stays the same
Every edition would have one shared object of study, and the aim would still be a research question. Players would build a short chain of choices from cards that say what they fit and what they are in tension with. A turn would still be to draw one card and then play one or discard one. The game would still end with a round-table discussion, without points or a winner.
What changes
The card that all the other cards are matched against would change. In the arts, humanities and social sciences that card is your Position, which states what you take reality and knowledge to be. In the natural sciences the more useful question is whether a piece of evidence can support a claim. A method card for a correlational study, for example, would be marked as in tension with a claim about causes, and the player would have to defend it.
If you teach research methods in one of these fields and would like to help write or test an edition, get in touch with Harry Whalley.