Using Student Data to Teach Research Methods

 

Students' own survey data can provide instructors an engaging, accessible tool for teaching students methods concepts.

At the beginning of the semester, students took a survey that asked a variety of mundane and absurd questions. The data from the survey was used throughout the course in both lecture and section to teach statistical concepts. It was also sometimes used as the data content for guided practice problems in section. See below for sample survey questions and anonymous results from 2011, a sample survey from previous years, and a lecture that uses the survey results to teach spurious correlation (start at slide 29).

survey questions.pdf43 KB
questionnaire.pdf38 KB
presentation.pptx9.51 MB