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，社会科学本科生甚至缺乏基本的定量方法技能。这种情况对英国研究基地的持续生存能力和活力及其经济都是有害的。这也限制了这些受过良好教育的公民参与以数字和/或统计为框架的社会辩论的能力，这种情况阻碍了参与性民主。这是一个自我强化的问题。随着越来越少的学生参与定量方法，因此将这些方法的知识传授给下一代学生的机会也越来越少。如果统计课程无法克服参与者的恐惧、焦虑或怀疑，那么解决这种脆弱情况的办法就不能简单地通过更多的统计课程来解决。量化方法。仅仅坚持这些方法是重要的，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抓住学生的想象力和兴趣的方式加以展示。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。需要以更令人信服的方式讲述统计数据如何在社会中被用于好或坏的“故事”。为此，该项目旨在创建一个跨学科的社会科学课程，其核心是定量叙事，作为教授定量方法的原理和概念的一种方式。定量叙述是一种分享故事的形式，通过从社会问题和争议开始教授统计学概念，并利用这些来捕捉学生的兴趣。为此，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后的故事-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，也没有被认为是公平的。它为课堂讨论提供了一个理想的案例研究--一个叙述--关于学生可能如何设计过程，他们会重视什么目标，他们对随机性的理解等等。通过这种方式，重要的统计概念被揭示，讨论和学习。该课程将在布里斯托大学作为一个跨学科的一年级开放单元进行教学和评估。该课程将得到一系列电子学习材料的支持，包括与经济和社会数据处提供的核心教学数据集相链接的互动式可视化和图形、随附的电子书、讲座录音以及为支持批判性思维和课堂讨论而编写的小插曲或案例研究。根据对学生在单元前后的态度和对定量方法的理解进行的评估，将对材料进行改编，然后在线提供给其他用户，免费，并根据知识共享许可证，允许他们复制或改编为非商业用途。该项目汇集了一个交叉-具有量化方法教学课程创新记录的学科团队。它提供了一个机会，嵌入主办机构的国际公认的专业知识，在教学和定量方法的研究在学生学习的早期阶段。它将最先进的定量方法与帮助学生更好地学习定量方法的需要联系起来，通过这样做，该项目将在东道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.