An investigation into the impact of visual teaching and learning strategies on undergraduate student's self-reported experience of quantitative resear

This project signals the commitment of the School of Social, Geographical and Political Sciences at Loughborough University to respond to ERSC developmental priorities and a recent call by the ERSC Strategic Advisor for Quantitative Methods to enhance the profile, coverage and impact of quantitative methods teaching within undergraduate social science curricula. The purpose of this two year project is to assist the evidenced-based development and student-centred evaluation of a quantitative teaching module incorporating Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for first-year undergraduate sociology and criminology students at Loughborough University. The project aims to enhance student's educational experience, research skills and practical understanding of how to conduct descriptive and inferential quantitative statistical analysis using secondary data. The long-term impacts of the project include the development of portable teaching resources and quality assurance and enhancement tools alongside the establishment of a 'mapping webspace' to host the delivery of quantitative teaching in a learner-centred manner.

Initially, the project will employ a research assistant whose role it will be to undertake a literature review of relevant published material and data sources, alongside conducting a survey of higher education sector undergraduate teaching provision which incorporates mapping technology, in order to identify core curricula content, good pedagogic practice, and quality control and enhancement frameworks. In achieving this goal it will be necessary to also establish networks and partnerships with educational, statutory, industry and third sector partners who share an interest in the application of GIS to complex social issues and problems. This work will be completed in the first nine months of the project and inform the subsequent development, delivery and evaluation of a 'crime and social mapping' quantitative teaching module, for implementation in 2013-14 academic year, which will be supported by a 'mapping webspace' containing pedagogic materials along with relevant information and resources for students.

The principal investigator will deliver the proposed teaching module and with the assistance of the co-investigator evaluate its impact on students' self-reported experience of, and engagement with, statistical data and quantitative methods teaching using a mixture of student feedback questionnaires and focus group data. Data collection instruments will be developed by the research assistant and will be piloted with student volunteers. A learner-led model of impact evaluation will be used by the project. Baseline data will be collected from first-year students via a questionnaire concerning their perception of statistics and quantitative research before they start the module. Comparative data will be collected from the same students via a questionnaire and focus group after they have completed the module. The two broad research questions guiding the project are:

1.What are first year criminology and sociology student's experience of, and perceptions toward, statistics and quantitative research methods as they begin their studies?

2.What are first year criminology and sociology student's perception of quantitative research methods after completing a quantitative teaching module which incorporates mapping technology?

Answering these two questions will enable the project to contribute to current academic understanding of the student experience of learning quantitative methods as well as explore the role GIS mapping technology may play in enhancing the educational experience and student engagement. The project will follow a formative learner-centred outcome evaluation model to ensure the changes introduced to enhance quantitative teaching provision embed long-term within the curriculum.This involves full consultation with students and external examiners.

Who will benefit from this research?

1) Academic teachers tasked with introducing social science undergraduate students to secondary data analysis and descriptive and inferential statistics (i.e. measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion and measures of association such as chi square, spearman's rho, t-tests, kendall's tau and pearson's r).

2) Undergraduate students who must complete a quantitative teaching module as a core part of their first-year degree course.

How will they benefit from this research?

The ESRC Quantitative Strategic Advisor (QSA) has made three key recommendations regarding the enhancement of quantitative teaching provision which can be mapped to the ERSC Quantitative Teaching Curriculum Innovation funding call (see table 1, case for support file, page 3 - 4). The data collected will enable the research team to evaluate if the following projected benefits have been realised in relation to these recommendations:

QSA Recommendation 1: 'To secure increased curriculum space for quantitative methods, including teaching in year 1 and more contact time for students'

A key output of the project will be development of a new quantitative methods and mapping technology teaching module that will extend first-year students' exposure to quantitative data analysis from 12 weeks to 24 weeks. It is assumed that enhancing the presence of quantitative teaching within the curriculum, including the support offered to students in the form of tutor contact and learning resources available to them via the mapping webspace, will have a positive impact on i) their general educational experience of learning quantitative methods given any initial anxiety they may have felt toward the topic ii) their quantitative data analysis skills, and iii) their perception of the role of quantitative research within the social sciences. Immediate evaluation of if students feel that they have indeed benefited in this manner will occur as part of the proposed data collection and analysis process. Longer term evaluation past the lifetime of the project is planned as part of the audit and quality control developmental cycle for undergraduate teaching provision within the School of Social, Geographical and Political Science at Loughborough University (see case for support). A key element of this longer term evaluation will be if the changes introduced have led to students choosing to undertake more statistically focused research project work in second and third year of their studies.

QSA Recommendation 2: 'To innovate in quantitative methods course content, with more emphasis on understanding and analysing data and proper treatment of secondary data analysis'.

The project seeks to innovate in the provision of quantitative teaching content through using mapping technology to introduce students to secondary data analysis using descriptive and inferential statistics. Evaluation of if students feel that they have benefited from this approach will occur as part of the proposed data collection and analysis process.

QSA Recommendation 3: 'To ensure that staff are supported by good quality web resources.'

Teaching staff will benefit from activity relating to the development of an open-access online 'mapping webspace' containing learning and teaching resources on crime and social mapping, including links to mapping data from national data source archives i.e UK census data alongside published research concerning the application of mapping technology to social problems.