Training Quantitative Social Science Teachers in the UK: Developing an International Pedagogic Collaborative Network for Quantitative Methods

为了解决英国社会科学严重的数量赤字，仅在研究方法教学中增加质量管理是不够的。在实质性领域嵌入量化材料，对于弥合统计在社会科学研究中的应用方面的知识和技能差距至关重要。开发量化教材往往需要大量的时间投资和高级技能(MacInnes，2009)。对大量量化社会科学研究的认识不足也给大多数大学的综合本科课程(QM)造成了巨大的障碍。为了填补这一空白，我们将引进欧洲和北美在量化方法方面的专业知识，以加强我们的培训。我们将举办一系列研讨会，为这些国际专家和我们的目标受众提供面对面交流的机会。工作坊将集中于本科课程的不同阶段，以及质量管理教学和特定学科的模块。我们计划招募的专家来自欧洲和北美的一群定量社会科学的“权势集团”：加州大学伯克利分校、加州大学洛杉矶分校、威斯康星麦迪逊分校、阿姆斯特丹弗吉尼亚大学和鲁汶大学。参与者将学习如何在这些大学的UG课程中教授QM和QM嵌入社会学，并将被鼓励分享他们在英国教授QM的经验和挑战。将有四个为期两天的研讨会(详情见支持案例)，最后一个为期一天的闭幕会议将在18个月内举行，并有一个专门的网站，与会者可以在上面互动和分享想法。我们的活动对所有英国社会科学教师开放，但每个研讨会的参与者限制为30人，以最大限度地增加互动。欢迎社会科学领域的资质管理教师和非资质管理教师报名。对于研讨会1至4，我们的专家将在第一天提供有关提供质量管理或实质性社会学内容的大师课程。这些会议并不局限于北美和欧洲的材料，因为英国学者的参与将提供比较例子。所有大师班都将被录像，并存放在一个受密码保护的项目网站上。将鼓励参与者从他们目前的课程(例如课堂讲稿和研讨会练习)中带出例子，作为分组讨论的基础。每个讲习班都将得到预先指定的阅读清单和网上托管的筹备材料的支持。鼓励学员在每次研讨会之前提交他们认为有用的教材，以便讨论这些教材并提请其他代表注意。在项目结束时，课程材料的样本将被转移到一个具有更高知名度的公共储存库(如恢复)，以便更广泛地获取。该项目将通过两次调查进行评估。我们将在研讨会之前和之后询问参与者在教学质量管理方面的能力和实践，以及具有定量研究的实质性模块。我们也有兴趣评估他们对在社会科学教学中更多地使用质量管理的态度，以及对其研究领域的量化出版物、数据集和资源的认识。每次活动后还将使用形成性反馈表，使我们能够适应系列中明确希望改变教学或环境因素的后续研讨会。此RDI旨在与我们与普利茅斯大学合作的拟议课程创新(CI)项目一起运行。传播与信息项目的样本材料将用于这些讲习班，我们预计将在最后一次会议上介绍传播与信息项目的调查结果。然而，由于与会者将被鼓励使用他们自己的材料，来访的演讲者将带来他们自己的资源，这个RDI并不依赖于CI申办的成功。

To address the severe quantitative deficit in British Social Science, it is not enough to increase QM in research methods teaching alone. The embedding of quantitative materials in substantive areas is essential to bridge the gap of knowledge and skills in the application of statistics in social science research. Developing quantitative teaching materials often requires substantial time investment and advanced skills (MacInnes 2009). Insufficient awareness of the vast amount of quantitative social science research also creates a great barrier to an (QM) integrated undergraduate curriculum in most universities. To fill this lacuna, we will bring in expertise in quantitative methods in Europe and North America to strengthen our training provision. We will host a series of workshops to provide an opportunity for face-to-face interaction between these international experts and our intended audience. The workshops will focus on different stages of the undergraduate curriculum and on both QM teaching and subject specific modules. The experts we plan to enlist come from a group of 'power-houses' in quantitative social science in Europe and North America: University of California - Berkeley, University of California - Los Angeles, Wisconsin-Madison, VU University Amsterdam, and KU Leuven. Participants will learn how QM and QM embedded Sociology are taught in the UG curriculum at these universities and will be encouraged to share their own experiences and challenges in teaching QM in the UK. There will be four two-day workshops (details see Case For Support) with a final one-day closing conference over 18 months with a dedicated website on which participants can interact and share ideas. Our events are open to all UK social science teachers but each workshop is limited to 30 participants to maximise interaction. Both QM and non-QM teachers in the social sciences are welcome to enrol. For Workshops 1 to 4, on Day One our experts will offer master classes on delivering QM or substantive Sociology content. These sessions are not restricted to North American and European materials as participations from UK academics will provide comparative examples. All master classes will be video recorded and deposited online on a password protected project website. Participants will be encouraged to bring examples from their current courses (e.g. lecture notes and seminar exercises) to form a basis for discussion in the breakout sessions. Each workshop will be supported by a pre-designated reading list and preparatory materials hosted on the web. Participants are encouraged to submit teaching materials that they find useful before each workshop so they can be discussed and drawn to the attention of other delegates. At the end of the project a sample of the course materials will be transferred to a public repository with a higher profile (such as ReStore) for wider access. The project will be evaluated by two surveys. We will ask participants before and after the workshops their competences and practices in teaching QM as well as substantive modules with quantitative research. We are also interested to gauge their attitudes towards using more QM in their social science teaching and awareness of quantitative publications, datasets and resources in their research areas. Formative feedback forms will also be used after each event to allow us to adapt subsequent workshops in the series where there is a clear desire for a change of pedagogic or environmental factors.This RDI is designed to run alongside our proposed Curriculum Innovation (CI) project, in collaboration with the University of Plymouth. Sample materials from the CI project will be used in these workshops and we anticipate presenting the findings of the CI project at the final conference. However, as participants will be encouraged to work with their own materials and visiting speakers will bring their own resources, this RDI is not dependent on the success of the CI bid.