Professor Julie Scott Jones: Tears, Tantrums and Quantitative Methods’: a holistic approach to growing students

Date: Monday 16th January 2017

Time and Location: Wine Reception at 5.00pm in Geoffrey Manton Atrium. Lecture at 6pm in Geoffrey Manton lecture Theatre 2, Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6LL

Tickets: FREE – See Eventbrite for tickets

Tears, Tantrums and Quantitative Methods’: a holistic approach to growing students

Quantitative methods is oft identified as a ‘hard to learn’ subject due to its numerical and technical content. Therefore, students often struggle to engage with quantitative methods, which they easily stereotype as ‘maths’ and ‘irrelevant’ to their wider studies. However, in this lecture Professor Scott Jones will examine some of the key barriers to learning quantitative methods and crucially will identify strategies for overcoming them. Drawing on the work of the Manchester Metropolitan University Q-Step Centre, a holistic model for creating quantitative methods-competent and confident students will be explored. The lecture will be illustrated with examples drawn from teaching practice with undergraduate students across levels and abilities.

Professor Julie Scott Jones is Associate Head of Department and Lecturer in Sociology at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her research interests fall into two main categories: religious worldviews and identity, and teaching methods. Her focus is on improving the delivery and learning of research methods, specifically quantitative methods. Professor Jones is currently engaged in two research projects that are looking at this issue.

The respondent to this lecture will be Professor Malcolm Williams, Director of the Cardiff University Q-Step Centre.

Malcolm Williams is Professor and Director at the Cardiff School of Social Sciences. His interests are primarily in the area of research methods and methodology and he has published extensively in these areas. His particular interests are in objectivity, causality and probability, representation and the pedagogy of quantitative methods.

This event is part of the Humanities in Public schedule of events. See our full schedule at: http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/hip/