How to Teach the Reluctant and Terrified to Love Statistics: The Importance of Context in Teaching Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences

2013 ◽  
pp. 85-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Adeney ◽  
Sean Carey
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
The Social

Teaching “Quanti” – Lessons from French Experiences in Sociology and History

2017 ◽  
Vol 136 (1) ◽  
pp. 40-52
Author(s):  
Pierre Mercklé ◽  
Claire Zalc
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
The Social

The paper’s main objective is to reflect, from both a sociological and a historiographical perspective, on how to use and how to teach quantitative methods in the social sciences. French and American social scientists, whether apprentices or confirmed, often encounter during their work a crucial need to use quantitative methods. But which methods do each favor? And how to teach these methods? In strongly varying national and disciplinary contexts, what are the directions taken by the revival of interest for quantitative methods? Comparing current pedagogical practices may be a heuristic way to raise crucial questions about historiographical uses of quantitative methods, and give way to a cautious advocacy of reflective uses of quantitative methods in the social sciences.

Data as representations: contextualizing qualitative and quantitative research strategies

2000 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jaan Valsiner
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Main Issue ◽  
Research Strategies ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
New States

The opposition between “quantitative” and “qualitative” perspectives in contemporary social science is an organizational limitation that directs discussions of the topic away from the main issue - the adequacy of any kind of data in respect to the phenomena they represent. This is particularly complicated if the phenomena are known to include inherent dynamics, are modifiable by the research encounter, or develop towards new states of existence. It is often assumed that qualitative and quantitative methods are mutually exclusive alternatives within a methodological process that is itself unified. The article shows that quantitative methods are derivates of a qualitative process of investigation, which itself can lead to the construction of inadequate data. The issue of the representativeness of the data - qualitative or quantitative - remains the central unresolved question for the methodology of the social sciences. Errors in representation can be diminished by correction of methods through direct (experiential) access to the phenomena, guided by the researcher's educated intuition.

scholarly journals The Uptake and Impact of a Label for Peer-Reviewed Books

2022 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eline Vandewalle ◽  
Raf Guns ◽  
Tim C. E. Engels
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Peer Review ◽  
Research Funding ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Peer Review Process ◽  
Formal System ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Funding System ◽  
The Social ◽  
Book Publishers

This article presents an analysis of the uptake of the GPRC label (Guaranteed Peer Reviewed Content label) since its introduction in 2010 until 2019. GPRC is a label for books that have been peer reviewed introduced by the Flemish publishers association. The GPRC label allows locally published scholarly books to be included in the regional database for the Social Sciences and Humanities which is used in the Flemish performance-based research funding system. Ten years after the start of the GPRC label, this is the first systematic analysis of the uptake of the label. We use a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Our two main data sources are the Flemish regional database for the Social Sciences and Humanities, which currently includes 2,580 GPRC-labeled publications, and three interviews with experts on the GPRC label. Firstly, we study the importance of the label in the Flemish performance-based research funding system. Secondly, we analyse the label in terms of its possible effect on multilingualism and the local or international orientation of publications. Thirdly, we analyse to what extent the label has been used by the different disciplines. Lastly, we discuss the potential implications of the label for the peer review process among book publishers. We find that the GPRC label is of limited importance to the Flemish performance-based research funding system. However, we also conclude that the label has a specific use for locally oriented book publications and in particular for the discipline Law. Furthermore, by requiring publishers to adhere to a formalized peer review procedure, the label affects the peer review practices of local publishers because not all book publishers were using a formal system of peer review before the introduction of the label and even at those publishers who already practiced peer review, the label may have required the publishers to make these procedures more uniform.

scholarly journals The correlations between certain features of the journal Neotropical Ichthyology and its impact factor: a comparative analysis at the thematic and national levels

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Sabrina Menezes ◽  
Letícia Strehl
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Impact Factor ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Short History ◽  
Microsoft Excel ◽  
Journal Citation Reports ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Relationship

The present article analyzes the relationship between characteristics of the journal Neotropical Ichthyology and its impact factor (IF) between 2006 and 2011 using bibliometric descriptive quantitative methods. To perform this analysis, two samples of journals included in Journal Citation Reports (JCR) were studied. One sample was composed of journals classified within the subject of zoology, and the other contained journals from different areas published in Brazil. The instrument used for data collection was a database created in Microsoft Excel 2007 and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 18. The results show that despite its short history, Neotropical Ichthyologyhas exhibited a distinctive impact, as manifested in a significant progression in the IF of this journal in the field of zoology during the investigated period.

scholarly journals Are Children Interviewees Just Like Any Others?

2020 ◽  
Vol 146 (1) ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
Alice Simon
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Social Characteristics ◽  
Age Difference ◽  
Age Group ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
Research Relationship ◽  
The Social ◽  
Key Issues

Based on a study combining qualitative and quantitative methods on children’s relation to politics, this article discusses the specificities of childhood as a research object in the social sciences. It raises two key issues. The first relates to the aptitudes required to participate in research (and thus the reliability of children’s responses) and the second relates to the potential imbalance in the research relationship. The article demonstrates that the difficulties encountered depend on the social characteristics of the children and are not specific to this age group. They primarily result from the distance between the interviewer and the interviewee, in this case stemming from the age difference sometimes accentuated by social distance. Children can be considered social beings like any others, and their specificities can be usefully analysed using the traditional tools of the social sciences.

The Mathematical Analysis of Supreme Court Decisions: The Use and Abuse of Quantitative Methods

1958 ◽  
Vol 52 (2) ◽  
pp. 321-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franklin M. Fisher
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Mathematical Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Experimental Approach ◽  
Court Decisions ◽  
The Social ◽  
Supreme Court Decisions

In the last decade, more and more political scientists have speculated on the possible applications of mathematical analysis to political phenomena. It is the position of this paper that such discussion, when in the abstract, serves little purpose, for the question of whether or not quantitative techniques can fruitfully be so applied is essentially an empirical one and can only be resolved by experiment. Yet even a specifically experimental approach becomes challengeable if it can be shown to misunderstand and hence misemploy otherwise sound techniques. The claim to have solved problems whose mathematical features have not, in fact, been comprehended seems especially harmful in a field where the application of mathematics is as yet in its infancy, and this not only because minor impurities at the base of a growing framework may assume major proportions at its apex, but because exposure of error may breed unjustified disenchantment or give solace to those who prefer a casual, imprecise impressionism in the social sciences.

scholarly journals DIGITAL SKILLS FOR EDUCATORS AND PARENTS IN THE CONTEXT OF HIGH - QUALITY EDUCATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 185-194
Author(s):  
Ilga Prudnikova
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Quality Education ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Empirical Methods ◽  
High Quality Education ◽  
Research Activities ◽  
The Social ◽  
Digital Skills

The purpose of the research is to identify commonalities and possible differences in the assessment of educators’ and parents’ attitudes towards digital technologies, reasons for their usage, and identify motivation to improve their digital skills. The study is built on research activities and there are used both theoretical and empirical methods. Quantitative methods in the form of questionnaires are used during the study. The researcher is more important to identify precedents and learn about the character of educators’ and parents’ attitudes. Dinamic environment for teaching should be supported by positive attitude to tehnologies. The statistical programme used for the analyses and presentation of data in this research is the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). In conclusion: the results from this study will be used to support interesting directions for future research in the context of higt –quility education. 

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