Doing it your way: The Variation in, and Importance of, Personal Style in Teaching Quantitative Methods for University Social Science Students

Abstract

This paper reviews and discusses ideas and advice on quantitative methods teaching in the social sciences that were presented and debated in a series of workshops led by experienced university teachers of quantitative methods for social science students. Despite considerable similarity in course content for introductory statistics modules at the undergraduate level, there is often great freedom for teachers and so huge variation in how statistics is taught. This involves different approaches to theory, examples, practical exercises and so on. We argue that there is no single style that would be most effective for everyone, but instead it is important for teachers to teach in a style that suits them.

Keywords:

• quantitative methods
• statistics
• undergraduate social science teaching
• active learning
• mixed ability

Acknowledgements

We are most especially grateful to the Oxford QM teachers’ workshop presenters (listed in the paper) and participants on whose views and observations this paper is mainly based. Also we would like to thank Sean Carey and John MacInnes for excellent comments on earlier drafts. The workshops were kindly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council with a Researcher Development Initiative award (Grant Number ES/J01155X/1) as part of the Quantitative Methods Initiative.