Enriching social science teaching with empirical data (ESSTED) - Student survey data

Olsen, Wendy and Brown, Mark and Tarani, Chandola and Jackie, Carter (2016). Enriching social science teaching with empirical data (ESSTED) - Student survey data. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Archive. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-851938

This project widens the embedding of quantitative data and methods in undergraduate social science.The main strategy is to support lecturers in changing their curriculum and pedagogy to encourage students’ active learning, building up skills through explicit scaffolding of learning.

The project sponsors workshops for teachers/lecturers across the UK, disseminates new teaching/learning methods online and by publication; and evaluates the impact of these changes and how to sustain the changes in teaching methods over time. Two Departments (Sociology and Politics) work closely with the co-investigators.The degrees of BA Econ, BSc Econ, and BA in Social Sciences degree (BASS) are affected.The money supports a research assistant, videos, and other costs.

The proposed step-change in QM embedding involves:

Getting students to generate and interpret their own quantitative survey data on substantive topics. New data about the students themselves follows the question wording found in national surveys. Students also use national and international data.

The project also trains faculty to deal with QM teaching.

It publicises useful Online Education Resources (OERs).

The project is delivered partly by staff in the UK Data Service and in MIMAS, the national data delivery and support service.

Data description (abstract)

ESSTED aims to help students develop and practice their quantitative skills and learn to evaluate and use quantitative evidence. The project involves an interdisciplinary team working to integrate more quantitative data and methods within the social science undergraduate curriculum at the University. The project focuses on embedding relevant quantitative data and methods within substantively focused course units in Politics and Sociology. We deposit only the student survey data from among all our mixed methods data; this is because of anonymity and confidentiality issues relating to the other data. The student survey was conducted on University of Manchester campus 2012-2013 with followup in classrooms in 2014/5.

Data creators:

Creator Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Olsen Wendy	University of Manchester, CMIST	http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1440-5810
Brown Mark	University of Manchester, Social Statistics Discipline, Social Sciences
Tarani Chandola	University of Manchester, CMIST	http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1864-3413
Jackie Carter	University of Manchester, Cathie Marsh Institute for Social Research (CMIST)

Contributors:

Name	Affiliation	ORCID (as URL)
Stephanie Thomson	University of Oxford
Stephanie Doebler	Queen's University Belfast
Lee Bentley	University of Manchester
Niklas Loynes	University of Manchester
Jennifer Buckley	University of Manchester