Secondary Analysis for Social Scientists：社会科学家的二次分析论文.pptVIP

Increasing the Use of Large Scale Surveys in Undergraduate Dissertations in the Social Sciences Mark Brown and Jo Wathan Centre for Census and Survey Research School of Social Science University of Manchester jo.wathan@manchester.ac.uk Mark.brown@manchester.ac.uk Manchester experience… Very few undergraduate dissertations in Sociology use quantitative methods …despite training in data analysis (SPSS) …despite superb range of very accessible social survey data Manchester – the norm rather than exception ‘British students are usually encouraged to collect their own data for final year undergraduate projects…This contrasts with the USA where most sociology students conduct secondary analysis of large-scale survey data… The lack of use of secondary analysis in Britain is surprising given that such a large number of high quality national surveys are readily available and that expertise in the analysis and data management of large surveys is in great demand by employers.’ Sara Arber in Nigel Gilbert (2001)Researching Social Life The (presumed) constraints? Lack of motivation No confidence in quantitative skills Find it boring and lacking relevance AND (or because of) Lack of knowledge about the resources available Project philosophy…Let the resources speak for themselves Don’t start with ‘what’s a standard deviation?’ or ‘how to do a cross-tab’ First engage students – showcase the resources …. make the links between topics students are interested in and relevant surveys …. then equip them with the skills to operationalise a research question for secondary data analysis …. learning that is personalised, hands-on, and using real data Training programme structure..Mimic the research process Research topics/questions Search for Data Data evaluation: is it fit for purpose? Operationalisation Data Analysis Interpretation 3 themed workbooks:www.esds.ac.uk/government/resources/sass/ Manchester Sociology (BSocS