X4L SDiT Survey Data in Teaching: enhancing critical thinking and data numeracy
This project aims to increase the use of real data sources held within the JISC portfolio of HE/FE research, teaching and learning resources in the classroom. A grander mission is to improve the data literacy of GCE A level and university students to:
- enable a better understanding of the use of social science data as applied to real-life problems
- enhance skills in manipulating numerical data in textbooks, newspapers or reports
- become critical consumers of this data
X4L SDiT uses the study of crime in society to show how existing data sources can be utilised, and as such, this project is relevant to a range of social science disciplines, such as sociology, politics, psychology and media studies. The project is also relevant to citizenship studies.
The resources can be used for A level syllabi but are also highly applicable for undergraduate and postgraduate learning.
Resources
The outputs from the project are a variety of free teaching and learning resources relating to social science and statistics. The materials are based on learning strategies that encourage the teaching of research methods within a substantive context.
These pre-prepared materials can save teachers considerable time and effort, and also offer ideas of how to utilise data sources data in their own teaching.
Teaching and learning modules
The teaching and learning modules are designed to be used as part of standard classroom teaching or as additional/self-paced learning activities.
The modules are available in a variety of formats:
- web-based resources hosted at the UK Data Archive web site
- printable and reproducible hard copies (MS Word and Adobe PDF)
- MS Powerpoint presentations which can be used to provide slides or handouts
- a teachers guide to accompany the resources
X4L SDiT will contribute to the planned JISC repository of teaching and learning materials.
Databases for teaching
A cut-down version of the Home Office-funded British Crime Survey 2000 data has been produced for use in the classroom and is freely available to students and teachers.
Students can investigate issues and methods using ‘live’ data. Teaching datasets for other UK surveys are also available from the UK Data Archive (UKDA).
Data access
The data may be accessed in two ways:
- via the UKDA web site using Nesstar
Nesstar is freely accessed on the internet. The data can be explored directly online using very simple point-and-click procedures or the dataset can be downloaded from the site and imported into other software, such as Excel or SPSS. - by using free data analysis software
For this project a free demonstration version of NSDstat has been provided. This is a very easy Windows-based program that enables students to examine the British Crime Survey data for themselves, and produce their own tables and graphs. The software is downloadable from the X4L web site. NSDstat has been developed for schools and colleges by the Norwegian Data Service, and is the analytical engine for Nesstar.
How can you help?
We are gathering feedback from teachers and students on the relevance, usefulness and general applicability of these kinds of web-based data and learning resources.If you would like to participate in evaluating the resources please contact:
X4L SDiT Project
Uk Data Archive
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester
Essex CO4 3SQ
x4l@essex.ac.uk
Brochure
Download the X4L SDiT brochure in Adobe PDF format.