The Development of Undergraduate Curricula in Quantitative Methods

• Start date: 01 January 2007
• End date: 31 December 2008

This research will develop courses that teach undergraduate students methods for analysing social science relationships using statistical analysis of numerical data. The principal objective of the project is to enhance the teaching of quantitative research methods to undergraduate social science students in UK universities. This will be achieved with a course that covers the entire process of research, from the formulation of theory, the design of a programme of research, the collection of numeric data and finally the application of statistical techniques for analysing data. A course that includes all of these components will instil in students a greater understanding of the need and suitability of statistical analysis to address many interesting questions in social science. In order to increase the students’ interaction with this material a further inquiry-based model of learning is proposed. This will involve teaching a selection of students more advanced methods of statistical analysis in order to complete a dissertation in political analysis.