Understanding data, understanding society: using quantitative narratives to embed evidence, argument and data within the undergraduate curriculum

ESRC的多次报告指出，即使是具备基本定量方法技能的社会科学本科生也很短缺。这种情况对英国研究基地的持续生存能力和活力以及经济都是有害的。它还限制了这些受过良好教育的公民对数字和（或）统计框架的社会辩论作出贡献的能力，这种情况阻碍了参与性民主。这是一个自我强化的问题。由于越来越少的学生接触定量方法，因此这些方法中知识转移给下一代学生的机会就越来越少。如果统计课程不能克服参与者对定量方法的恐惧、焦虑或怀疑，那么解决这种脆弱局面的办法就不能仅仅是增加统计课程。仅仅坚持认为这些方法很重要，应该学习是不够的。它们作为产生可信证据和为社会辩论提供信息的工具的价值和力量，必须以一种能抓住学生想象力和兴趣的方式来展示。在基础层面上，必须理解统计学的专业语言与令人生畏的方程式相结合，为学生创造了相当大的学习障碍。统计数据如何在社会中为善或为恶的“故事”需要以一种更引人注目的方式讲述。为此，该项目旨在创建一个跨学科的社会科学课程，其核心是定量叙述，作为教授定量方法原理和概念的一种方式。定量叙事是一种共享的讲故事形式，它从社会问题和争议开始教授统计学概念，并利用这些来吸引学生的兴趣。为了做到这一点，我们向学生展示一些相关的故事，并引导他们通过讨论来揭示背景故事-一个潜在的统计概念。例如，奥运会门票的投票就是一个很好的实验设计例子，尽管它是随机的，但它并没有产生许多人想要的结果，也不会被认为是公平的。它提供了一个理想的案例研究——一种叙述——在课堂上讨论学生如何设计这个过程，他们看重什么目标，他们对随机性的理解等等。通过这种方式，重要的统计概念得以揭示、讨论和学习。该课程将在布里斯托尔大学作为跨学科的一年级开放课程进行教学和评估。该课程将由一系列电子学习材料提供支持，包括与经济和社会数据服务提供的核心教学数据集相关的交互式可视化和图形，附带的电子书，讲座录音以及支持批判性思维和课堂讨论的小故事或案例研究的发展。在评估的基础上调查学生的态度和对定量方法的理解在单元之前和之后，这些材料将被改编，然后再提供给其他用户在线使用，免费，并根据知识共享许可，允许他们复制或改编用于非商业用途。该项目汇集了一个跨学科的团队，他们在定量方法教学的课程创新方面有着良好的记录。它提供了在学生学习的早期阶段将主办机构的国际公认的专业知识融入定量方法的教学和研究的机会。它将最先进的定量方法与帮助学生更好地学习方法的需要联系起来。通过这样做，该项目将在东道国机构和其他地方建立定量方法的能力。

Repeated reports by the ESRC have pointed to the shortage of social science undergraduate students with even basic quantitative methods skills. This is a situation that is harmful to the on-going viability and vitality of the UK's research base and to its economy. It also limits the ability of these otherwise well educated citizens to contribute to social debates framed numerically and/or statistically, a situation that hinders participatory democracy. It is a problem that is self-reinforcing. As fewer students engage with quantitative methods so there is less opportunity for knowledge transfer in these methods to the next generation of students.The solution to this fragile situation cannot simply be more stats classes if these fail to overcome the participants' fear, anxiety or scepticism of quantitative methods. It simply is not enough to insist that such methods are important and should be learned. Their value and power as a tool for generating credible evidence and informing social debate must be demonstrated in a way that captures the students' imaginations and interests. At a foundational level it must be understood that the specialist language of statistics combines with intimidating-looking equations to create considerable learning barriers for students. The 'stories' of how statistics can be used for good or for ill in society need to be told in a more compelling way. To that end, this project is to create a cross-disciplinary social sciences curriculum that has at its heart quantitative narratives as a way of teaching the principles and concepts of quantitative methods. A quantitative narrative is a form of shared storytelling that teaches concepts in statistics by beginning with social issues and controversies and uses those to capture the students' interests. To do so, we present the students with some relevant story and guide them through a discussion to reveal the back story - an underlying statistical concept. For example, the ballot for Olympic tickets is a good example of an experimental design that didn't generate the outcomes many people wanted and would have regarded as fair, despite it being random. It provides an ideal case study - a narrative - for an in-class discussion about how the students might have designed the process, what objectives they would value, what they understand by randomness and so forth. In this way important statistical concepts are revealed, discussed and learned.The curriculum will be taught and evaluated as a cross-disciplinary, year 1 open unit at the University of Bristol. The curriculum will be supported by a range of e-learning material including interactive visualisations and graphics linked to core teaching datasets provided by the Economic and Social Data Service, an accompanying e-book, lecture recordings and the development of vignettes or case studies to support critical thinking and class discussion. On the basis of the evaluations investigating the students' attitudes and understanding of quantitative methods before and after the unit, the material will be adapted before being made available to other users online, at no charge and under a Creative Commons licence that permits them to be reproduced or adapted for non-commercial use.The project draws together a cross-disciplinary team with a track record of curriculum innovation for quantitative methods teaching. It offers the opportunity to embed the host institution's internationally recognised expertise in the teaching and research of quantitative methods at an early stage of the students' learning. It makes the connections between the state-of-the-art in quantitative methods and the need to assist the students better in their learning pathways to it. By doing-so the project will build capacity in quantitative methods within the host institution and elsewhere.