Exploration of Students’ Performance on Research Methods within Sociology Departments

Author(s):

Anesa Hosein(presenting / submitting)Namrata Rao(presenting)

Conference:

ECER 2014

Network:

22. Research in Higher Education

Format:

Paper

Session Information

22 SES 09 A, Teaching, Learning and Assessment in Higher Education

Paper Session

Time:

2014-09-04

11:00-12:30

Room:

B020 Anfiteatro

Chair:

Réka Plugor

Contribution

Introduction

Sociology is a popular subject studied at degree level in Europe. It is gaining momentum to be standardised through Europe as is evidenced by European Sociology Degree Project (Scaglia, 2008) in which 5 universities from 4 European Union countries have developed a common Sociology degree. Within most undergraduate Sociology degree programmes (Europe and Worldwide), students are often required to cover research methodologies. These research methodologies may include using both qualitative and quantitative research techniques. Murtonen (2005) suggests that students may privilege one of these research techniques over the other. This may indicate that students will perform better in research methodology courses which have more content aligned to the students’ preference of methodology. Further, students’ performance on research methodology courses may be affected by their expectations on what their Sociology degree might contain. For example, students who perceived Sociology as being a “soft” subject with limited need for numerical literacy, may not privilege quantitative research techniques. Alongside with this, students who are at universities where the academic entry grade is higher, may be able to perform better in research methods as they may have better academic skills.

This research therefore intends to answer the following question:

What factors affect students’ performance in research methods?

To answer this question we will investigate how the following conditions affect students’ performance on research methods:

Initial reasons for choosing their Sociology degree
Attitudes to their Sociology degree
Attitudes towards mathematics/statistics
University academic culture/environment

Theoretical Framework and Research Design

The research uses Bandura’s notion of reciprocal determinism which is based on social cognitive theory to explore the factors that affect students’ performance in research methods (Bandura, 1989). Reciprocal determinism suggests that the three factors of Environment (E), behaviour (B) and Personal Cognitive/Affective (P) factors are influenced by and influences each other. Using this, we suggest that the students’ performance (i.e. behaviour, B) on research methods will be related to the environment (E) and their own personal cognitive/affective factors (P). The relationship between the factors will be established using a step-wise regression model.The research uses data from the ‘Student Perceptions and Experiences of Quantitative Methods’ database (SPEQM) conducted in 2006 through an UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) grant. In that research, 622 Sociology students were surveyed in their 2^nd and 3^rd year of their undergraduate degree at 34 English and Welsh universities (see Williams, Payne, Hodgkinson, & Poade, 2008 for further information).

Method

Variables This section identifies the variables that are used in a step-wise regression on this analysis based on the social cognitive theory factors. Performance (P): Performance on research methods is measured by the mark they claim to have achieved in their last research methods course. Academic Culture/ Environmental Variables (E) The academic culture/ environment where the student studied was measured by four variables: 1. University Prestige: Measured by the minimum University and Colleges Admission Service (UCAS) entry points required to enter the university. 2. University Level: The year that the student was in their degree 3. Quantitative Methods Teaching: The extent that quantitative methods were taught. 4. Qualitative Methods Teaching: The extent that qualitative methods were taught. Personal Affective/Cognitive Variables (P) The affective and cognitive variables were determined by using two exploratory factor analyses (EFA) on a number of psychometric items which resulted in eight variables. Reasons for degree choice (4 factors): Students answered nine psychometric items on their reason for choosing a Sociology degree. Four factors were determined: 1. Past Grades (2 items): 2. Interest in Subject (2 items): 3. Employability and Encouragement (3 items): 4. Easy Subject (2 items): Attitudes and Beliefs to Mathematics/Statistics and Sociology Degree Experience (4 factors): Students responded to 18 items on their attitudes and beliefs to their sociology degree. Four factors were determined: 1. Affinity to the Scientific Method (4 items) 2. Affinity towards Mathematics/ Statistics (3 items) 3. Sociology Degree Employability/Status (3 items) 4. Enjoyment of Sociology degree (2 items) Results A stepwise regression was conducted with the performance on research methods (B) as the dependent variable and the independent variables of the environmental (E) and cognitive/attitudinal variables (P). The stepwise regression found that the regression model using 8 variables was the most suitable model (F (8,532) = 15.13, p <= 0.01). This explained 18.4% variance. The model included the personal cognitive/ attitudinal (P) variables of Enjoyment of Sociology degree (β =-0.15), Affinity to Scientific Methods (β =0.20), Affinity to Mathematics/Statistics (β =0.15), and Past Grades (β =0.08). The environmental (E) factors that affected performance were University Prestige (β =0.10), Quantitative Methods Teaching (β =0.09), Qualitative Methods Teaching (β = 0.09), and University Level (β = 0.15).

Expected Outcomes

Students who had an affinity to mathematics/statistics and the scientific methods were more likely to do better in their research methods modules. However, the amount of quantitative and qualitative methods taught made an equal contribution to the predicted research methods performance. Students who did their Sociology degree based on Past Grades and Enjoyed the subject were found to do also better in their research methods. The additional environmental factors of university prestige and university level also influenced the performance. In particular, students who were at higher levels in university performed better in research methods which may indicate more experience or familiarity with using these methods. The results also indicates that the lower the university’s prestige, the lower the students’ research methods performance which may suggest the university’s academic culture may influence students’ engagement of research methods. The implications of these results indicate that students who dislike mathematics/statistics may have a disadvantage on research methods courses and this is perhaps particularly true at universities with lower prestige. Although the amount of quantitative and qualitative teaching contributed the same amount of variance to the students’ performance, students in lower prestige universities may be more likely to come out with weaker research methods skills in quantitative methods. Therefore, more scaffolding of research methods within the lower prestige universities is needed and this may apply within and outside Europe. This however is unlike the current practice in the UK where mostly higher prestige universities have recently (2013) been given funding through a Q-step programme to strengthen their quantitative methods teaching. Further research can look into whether academic staff are likely to teach research methods differently within lower prestige universities and higher prestige universities in different parts of Europe.

References

Bandura, A. (1989). Social cognitive theory. In R. Vasta (Ed.), Annals of Child Development (Vol. 6, pp. 1-60). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.. Murtonen, M. (2005). University students' research orientations: do negative attitudes exist toward quantitative methods? Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research, 49(3), 263-280. doi: 10.1080/00313830500109568 Scaglia, A. (2008). EUSDEGREE - European Sociology Degree European Commission - Lifelong Learning Programme. Università degli Studi di Trento. Williams, M., Payne, G., Hodgkinson, L., & Poade, D. (2008). Does British sociology count?: Sociology students' attitudes toward quantitative methods. Sociology, 42(5), 1003-1021. doi: 10.1177/0038038508094576

Author Information

Anesa Hosein (presenting / submitting)

University of Surrey

Higher Education

Guildford

Namrata Rao (presenting)

Liverpool Hope University

Education

Liverpool

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