Patterns in Politics & Society: Promoting the Enrichment of Undergraduate Teaching with Quantitative Methods

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The use of quantitative data is far too limited in social science teaching in the UK today. This project will help to fill this gap by providing a step-change in teaching methods for up to 12 Year 1-2 Undergraduate course units. We create then roll out innovations to a national level through a network, online resources and training, as well as training for trainers, in relation to these materials. The topics for the units are Sociology (e.g. how relationships form and what is classified as a marriage or civil registration) and Politics (e.g. egalitarian attitudes and how they change over time). We also support more advanced quantitative methods (QM) in Level 2-3 course units .The creation of course unit elements has been initiated by our Lecturer partners, some of whom are named in the bid. Each element consists of one lecture (1-1.5 hours) and one tutorial class or formative exercise. We call this a 'course unit component' which might take up a week of study within a course (6 study hours). In developing these, we extend them in the area of innovative pedagogy with more explicit learning outcomes for quantitative methods. We argue that student roles vis-à-vis QM need to be built up via scaffolding (i.e. enriched gradually) from Reader through User to Maker of data; and finally also that the latest data sources and methods need to be disseminated in modernised ways. We aim to show teachers of undergraduate methods how to use a range of means of getting relevant data, revealing our sources and methods through footnotes and a brief resource pack for each course unit component.We use peer review of our Manchester teachers to gather up expertise, leading to making video segments for online display and workshop use in promoting excellent teaching innovation in QM. We evaluate the project in terms of both student and staff impact.The creators of the course unit elements initially are Univ. of Manchester lecturers, all named in the bid. Each gets two bespoke consultations and consults with a dedicated, pedagogically-experienced expert in secondary data analysis, who helps with refining a lecture or tutorial task that fits into a given syllabus. Next this material is tested in the classroom and evaluations are conducted. The resulting set of up to twelve topics' materials become the basis of a series of online web pages. A network of users is set up, incentivised by free access to a range of short courses for professional development. This network can include University and Higher Education social science and QM teachers in the UK. Among these users we expect to find a few trainers, i.e. those who provide Quantitative Methods Support services in various Higher Education settings in the UK. The whole network of teachers using QM has access to materials via online file management. The students in the local Univ. of Manchester classrooms also evaluate the materials and their learning experience. The course materials also become the subject of four workshops:1. Teaching undergraduates with quantitative data. 2. Making, using and interpreting enriched graphic images.3. Making, using and interpreting tables: innovations for undergraduate social scientists. 4. Using secondary data the easy way: innovations for teachers of social science.We will hold 16 workshops in all (some via web), developing the workshop topics to fit users' needs over 3 years.