Survey Data in Teaching Project : enhancing critical thinking and data numeracy Louise Corti and Jon Mulberg UK Data Archive, University of Essex 21 June 2004, Cambridge workshop

Aims and challenges of the the JISC Exchange for Learning (X4L) Programme encourage HE/FE institutions to actively take a role in defining the kinds of content that would best fit their learning aims challenge to demonstrate how UKDA materials can be re-used to support learning pedagogical outcomes at the heart of the programme - focus on learning activities and outcomes explore sustainability and widespread adoption of e- learning materials - by unlocking the potential of complementary areas of work

Meeting the programme objectives assemble ‘chunks’ of content which can be identified as learning objects to create new learning materials make more direct connections between available resources and the 16+ curriculum and to create learning pathways document the processes used to re-purpose learning materials and to provide case studies and exemplars test the usability of materials within the context of an institutional environment submit these learning materials for sharing to suitable learning materials repository tag/catalogue the ‘learning objects’ using appropriate metadata to trial and evaluate their use within the community

Project rationale UK academic community has access to a unique and expansive range of digital data resources whilst individual datasets used extensively in academic research they are significantly under used in T&L programmes within HE, and rarely used in Further Education UKDA has the potential to offer its resources to the T&L communities for developing more ‘packaged’ resources BUT needs the advice and input from instructors in the classroom on how to re-purpose and apply the content widely recognised in the UK that the skills shortage of quantitative analysts is now critical - introducing concepts early on in post-16 education is one way to redress this shortage

Survey Data in Teaching: a resource for students and teachers UKDA project aimed to increase the use of real data sources held within the JISC portfolio of HE/FE research, teaching and learning resources in the classroom. A grander mission is to improve the data literacy of GCE A level and university students to: enable a better understanding of the use of social science data as applied to real-life problems enhance skills in manipulating numerical data in textbooks, newspapers or reports become critical consumers of this data

Topics and educational level X4L SDiT uses the study of crime in society to show how existing data sources can be utilised, and as such, this project is relevant to a range of social science disciplines, such as sociology, politics, psychology and media studies. The project is also relevant to citizenship studies. Empirical orientations: research methods in social science —potential of survey data to answer questions —survey measurement; sampling —basic data management/basic data analysis —resource discovery skills the resources applicable to ‘A’ level syllabi but are also highly applicable for undergraduate and postgraduate learning

Resources created outputs from the project are a variety of free teaching and learning resources relating to social science and statistics. based on learning strategies that encourage the teaching of research methods within a substantive context modules designed to be used as part of standard classroom teaching or as additional/self-paced learning activities Key Skills mapping for ‘A’ level pre-prepared materials can save teachers considerable time and effort, and also offer ideas of how to utilise data sources in their own teaching steering committee and advisors from across the HE and FE sectors

Overview of the learning and Teaching materials four learning modules on the use of crime data, plus an appendix on sampling and statistical inference, as well as a glossary of statistical terms two general guides: one on the use of the Nesstar online data exploration system freely accessible via the UKDA site resource discovery (data and documentation) at the UK Data Archive a teaching version of the British Crime Survey dataset is also available free demonstration version of very simple and user-friendly data analysis software, which is utilised in the last two of the teaching modules

Modules overview Module 1: Tracking Crime: Police Recorded Crime Figures, Trends and Reasons for Change Module 2: Theories about Crime: Public Perceptions of Crime Rates Module 3: Gathering Evidence: How to investigate crime statistics Module 4: Examining Evidence: How to interrogate crime statistics Module 5: Resource Discovery - Searching for evidence: sources of crime data Module 6: Guide to Using Nesstar

Teaching and learning modules…. web-based resources hosted at the UK Data Archive web site printable and reproducible hard copies (bound paper workbook with accompanying CD-ROM, MS Word and Adobe PDF) MS PowerPoint presentations which can be used to provide slides or handouts a teachers guide to accompany the resources providing an exemplar/model of how such resources could be applied to other topics e.g. health, race etc

Module 1 – Tracking Crime: Police Recorded Crime Figures, Trends and Reasons for Change L ooks at the trend in recorded crime. It charts the trend in crime for each of the last three political administrations, and concludes with an exercise linking policy decisions with possible explanations for changes in crime levels. Skills covered: line graph reading interpretation of trends internet usage group discussion problem analysis and evaluation

Module 2 – Theories about Crime: Public perceptions of crime rates Considers an alternative method of measuring crime to the previous module, looking at the British Crime Survey, and comparing the two measures of crime levels. It then shifts emphasis to look at perceptions of crime trends, and examines different theories as to why the public perception of crime levels may not match the actual risk of victimisation. Skills covered: comprehension of basic measurement guidelines trend comparison more complex graphical analysis (stacked bar charts, time indices, paired bar charts) understanding of theoretical concepts and evaluation of evidence understanding of simple statistical concepts also an appendix to Module 2 for government students which looks at UK party policy on crime

Module 3 – Gathering Evidence: How to investigate crime statistics Concerned with the concepts of operationalisation and validity, and with basic descriptive statistics. It shows how to use Nesstar to find out information about the British Crime Survey, to constructively criticise the validity of data used in reports, and to use the simple computer program to generate descriptive statistics, frequency tables and graphs. Skills covered: understanding of concepts of operationalisation and validity understanding of content and usage of metadata use of internet to explore metadata understanding of basic descriptive statistics and frequency tables use of computer program to generate descriptive statistics, graphs and univariate tables

Module 4 – Examining Evidence: How to interrogate crime statistics A skills-based module concerned with explaining the analysis of associations between two variables. Skills covered: understanding of concepts of association and independence use of computer program for recoding data use of computer program for construction of 2-way table analysis of 2-way tables There is a separate appendix to Module 4 which looks at statistical significance, and shows how to use NSDstat to investigate this. In addition, there are two general guides to finding and investigating data and documentation on the UK Data Archive site.

Module 5 - Searching for evidence: sources of crime data Shows how to search the UK Data Archive web site to find out which studies have been conducted on any given topic Skills covered: resource discovery on the web finding surveys at the UKDA exploring the Social Science Information Gateway (SOSIG)

Module 6 - Browsing and analysing evidence: a guide to using Nesstar Shows how to use the online interactive Nesstar web site to obtain information about studies, such as data collection details, related publications and even the questionnaire itself. The guide also shows how to use the site to establish which variables are in a dataset, and to produce tables and graphs from the data. Skills covered: accessing and browsing data using Nesstar familiarity with the British Crime Survey dataset producing tables and graphs online

Check it out… web site: x4l.data-archive.ac.uk We welcome your feedback and suggestions and ideas on utilising data in your teaching.

TODAY Work through exercises – hour or so Feedback via a guided focus group Feedback form for chance to individual comments