Project Investigator(s): Silvia Bartolic, Instructor, Sociology
Project Description
Many students in the Faculty of Arts in departments such as Sociology fear quantitative methods and try to avoid courses that require any level of math ability reporting that methods courses are boring, leading to poor attendance and low achievement. The goals of this project are to evaluate a flipped-classroom based approach to teaching research methods curriculum specifically evaluating students’ ability to conduct their own quantitative research projects successfully and to demonstrate to faculty peers the learning benefits of incorporating new instructional techniques such as problem-based learning and the flipped classroom.
Research Questions
Do students’ final research projects show improvement in students’ ability to apply and interpret quantitative methods following the flipping of the classroom?
Impact on teaching and learning at UBC
Several past students have reported they were hired due to the data analysis skills they developed through work on their projects. Further, undergraduate students generally have few opportunities to directly apply their quantitative skills. Thus, it is imperative I find a way to get students of all statistical/methods ability levels comfortable and successful in learning quantitative methods. The comparative results will show whether or not the flipped classroom/problem-based approach to teaching research methods can improve student learning and retention of these materials. Results will also show what areas of the content are most difficult for students as well as what teaching method worked best for each of the content areas. I may, for example, find that I ‘flipped too much’. Results
will help me shape future sections of the course. Video lessons/tutorials, problem sets and qualitative coding scheme used to determine learning outcomes on the project will be developed and shared as innovative teaching resources/exemplars for faculty and teaching assistants within Sociology and across campus via a project website.