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Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment

This paper reports on a quasi-experiment in which quantitative methods (QM) are embedded within a substantive sociology module. Through measuring student attitudes before and after the intervention alongside control group comparisons, we illustrate the impact that embedding has on the student experi...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Williams, Malcolm, Sloan, Luke, Cheung, Sin Yi, Sutton, Carole, Stevens, Sebastian, Runham, Libby
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887821/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27330225
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038515587652
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author Williams, Malcolm
Sloan, Luke
Cheung, Sin Yi
Sutton, Carole
Stevens, Sebastian
Runham, Libby
author_facet Williams, Malcolm
Sloan, Luke
Cheung, Sin Yi
Sutton, Carole
Stevens, Sebastian
Runham, Libby
author_sort Williams, Malcolm
collection PubMed
description This paper reports on a quasi-experiment in which quantitative methods (QM) are embedded within a substantive sociology module. Through measuring student attitudes before and after the intervention alongside control group comparisons, we illustrate the impact that embedding has on the student experience. Our findings are complex and even contradictory. Whilst the experimental group were less likely to be distrustful of statistics and appreciate how QM inform social research, they were also less confident about their statistical abilities, suggesting that through ‘doing’ quantitative sociology the experimental group are exposed to the intricacies of method and their optimism about their own abilities is challenged. We conclude that embedding QM in a single substantive module is not a ‘magic bullet’ and that a wider programme of content and assessment diversification across the curriculum is preferential.
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spelling pubmed-48878212016-06-16 Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment Williams, Malcolm Sloan, Luke Cheung, Sin Yi Sutton, Carole Stevens, Sebastian Runham, Libby Sociology Articles This paper reports on a quasi-experiment in which quantitative methods (QM) are embedded within a substantive sociology module. Through measuring student attitudes before and after the intervention alongside control group comparisons, we illustrate the impact that embedding has on the student experience. Our findings are complex and even contradictory. Whilst the experimental group were less likely to be distrustful of statistics and appreciate how QM inform social research, they were also less confident about their statistical abilities, suggesting that through ‘doing’ quantitative sociology the experimental group are exposed to the intricacies of method and their optimism about their own abilities is challenged. We conclude that embedding QM in a single substantive module is not a ‘magic bullet’ and that a wider programme of content and assessment diversification across the curriculum is preferential. SAGE Publications 2015-06-29 2016-06 /pmc/articles/PMC4887821/ /pubmed/27330225 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038515587652 Text en © The Author(s) 2015 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Articles
Williams, Malcolm
Sloan, Luke
Cheung, Sin Yi
Sutton, Carole
Stevens, Sebastian
Runham, Libby
Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment
title Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment
title_full Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment
title_fullStr Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment
title_full_unstemmed Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment
title_short Can’t Count or Won’t Count? Embedding Quantitative Methods in Substantive Sociology Curricula: A Quasi-Experiment
title_sort can’t count or won’t count? embedding quantitative methods in substantive sociology curricula: a quasi-experiment
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887821/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27330225
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038515587652
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