Award to Enhance Students’ Confidence in Statistics

Two Lecturers from Social and Policy Studies have been awarded a Teaching Innovation Award to create a video resource for enhancing social science students’ confidence in doing well in statistics with inspirational stories by previous students.

Dr Fran Azpitarte (Lecturer in Social Policy) and Dr Adrian Leguina (Lecturer in Quantitative Sociology) are the recipients of the Award. 

The fundamental idea of the project is to promote a mindset among students of quantitative methods by incorporating inspirational stories from recent alumni into the curriculum of the module.

Many students may feel apprehensive towards maths and regard themselves as 'bad at numbers'. The aim of this project is to instil the idea that like any others skills, quantitative skills can be developed and students' confidence in their abilities can be supported. The project will integrate the experiences of previous students into the delivery of quantitative methods modules using a combination of in-person presentations and pre-recorded videos designed to act as a stimulus and promote a growth mindset to enhance student confidence and learning of quantitative methods.