Inspiring Quantitative Methods Teaching in the Social Sciences
New SAGE Research Methods Teaching Platform Launched to Support Academics
SAGE Publishing has collaborated with the Nuffield Foundation and the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), to launch SAGE Research Methods Teaching, a platform specifically designed for social science lecturers to find and share teaching materials and to inspire academics teaching quantitative methods courses at undergraduate and postgraduate level.
This exciting new partnership showcases the outputs of a £19.5m investment made by ESRC, the Nuffield Foundation and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) that was designed to deliver a step-change in undergraduate quantitative skills teaching. This is known as Q-Step.
The new platform is an important route through which the benefits of Q-Step can now be shared with the broader research community, ensuring the valuable resources will be free and open for reuse by faculty around the world. Designed with extensive input from faculty and lecturers in the Q-Step Centres, SAGE Research Methods Teaching includes resources for teaching topics including data analytics, modeling, and descriptive statistics materials, including slide decks, lecture notes, and activities. The resource is designed to grow over time and become a forum through which researchers can share their teaching materials and build networks of support in teaching quantitative methods. It will promote pedagogical development and innovation, and ultimately strengthen the quality of teaching and the student experience, improving learning outcomes across the social science community.
“We’re excited about the value SAGE Research Methods Teaching will bring to quantitative social science teaching,” says Katie Metzler, Vice President of Books and Social Science Innovation at SAGE Publishing. “We want to foster a culture of sharing and reuse of the best materials for teaching methods and statistics, and we believe the community will become a place for social science influencers to share their favorite resources and for faculty new to methods teaching to find tried and tested resources to support their teaching.”
“I am delighted we are able to share the benefits of Q-Step with the wider social science research community, strengthening capability nationally and internationally,” says Frances Burstow, Deputy Director of Skills and Methods at ESRC. “This platform will allow researchers to draw on the pedagogical good practice and high-quality resources developed through the initiative to enhance the learning experience of their students.”
“Effective training in quantitative methods boosts social science students’ employment prospects by equipping them with a deep and secure grasp of the skills needed for analyzing data and evaluating evidence,” says Josh Hillman, Director of Education at the Nuffield Foundation. “We are very excited to be launching this new online platform which gives lecturers free access to teaching materials developed through our Q-Step Programme. This will enable many more students to benefit from high-quality quantitative methods teaching and a better grounding in the ways that data can be used to understand society. Our hope is that this platform will also support and grow the community of quantitative social science teachers,” finishes Hillman.
More information about this partnership and SAGE Research Methods Teaching can be found here.
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About SAGE Publishing
SAGE is a global academic publisher of books, journals, and a growing suite of library products and services.
Driven by the belief that social and behavioral science has the power to improve society, we focus on publishing impactful research, enabling robust research methodology, and producing high quality educational resources that support instructors to prepare the citizens, policymakers, educators and researchers of the future. We publish more than 1,000 journals and 600 new books globally each year, as well as library resources that include archives, data, case studies, video, and technologies for discovery, access, and engagement. SAGE’s founder, Sara Miller McCune, has transferred control of the company to an independent trust, guaranteeing its independence indefinitely.
About the Economic and Social Research Council
The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), a non-departmental public body funded by a grant-in-aid from the UK government. We fund world-leading research, data and post-graduate training in the economic, behavioural, social and data sciences to understand people and the world around us. Our work helps raise productivity, address climate change, improve public services and generate a prosperous, inclusive, healthy and secure society.
About the Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation is an independent charitable trust with a mission to advance educational opportunity and social well-being. We fund research that informs social policy, primarily in Education, Welfare and Justice. We also provide opportunities for young people to develop skills and confidence in science and research. The Nuffield Foundation is the founder and co-funder of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics, the Nuffield Family Justice Observatory and the Ada Lovelace Institute. Visit nuffieldfoundation.org and follow us on Twitter @NuffieldFound.
About Q-Step
Q-Step is a £19.5 million program launched in 2013/14 and funded by the Nuffield Foundation, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE). Q-Step funded a total of 18 Q-Step Centres at UK universities for five years (until 2018) and provided additional ‘transitional’ funding to 17 of them, for two years (2019–2021). Q-Step was developed as a strategic response to the shortage of quantitatively-skilled social science graduates in the UK. The programme was designed to promote a step-change in quantitative social science training in the UK.