Abstract
One innovative way to help students make sense of survey research has been to create a multifaceted,
collaborative assignment that promotes critical thinking, comparative analysis, self-reflection, and statistical
literacy. We use a short questionnaire adapted from the Higher Education Research Institute’s Cooperative
Institutional Research Program’s Freshman Survey. In our Research Methods course, students begin by
administering the brief questionnaire to a small, nonrandom sample of students at our university. They
analyze the data descriptively and compare their “results” to the national trends as part of their required
course homework. These data are then quantitatively analyzed throughout all homework exercises the
next semester during their statistics course. This collaborative effort bridges methods, statistics, and
capstone courses, helping students connect the courses and develop a deeper understanding, awareness
and appreciation of the utility of preestablished instruments for collecting primary data and for assessing
the meaning of secondary data.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Teaching Sociology |
| Volume | 45 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jan 1 2017 |
Keywords
- survey research
- research methods
- social statistics
- quantitative methods
- active learning
Disciplines
- Sociology
- Statistics and Probability
- Higher Education
- Social Statistics
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Community-Based Learning
- Community-Based Research
- Service Learning