As part of our mission to remain at the forefront of research on teaching and learning, Politics has published a number of articles on teaching research methods. Adeney and Carey’s “Contextualising the Teaching of Statistics in Political Science”, published in Politics in 2009, is the seminal piece on teaching research methods in the UK. As this area has developed, the journal has been pleased to publish a number of other important pieces.
Cristina Leston-Bandeira’s piece “Methods Teaching through a Discipline Research-Oriented Approach” explores a case study of teaching practice that emphasizes the importance of having students engage in developing their own primary research; it also highlights the important role virtual learning environments can play in this process.
Matt Ryan, Clare Saunders, Emily Rainsford and Emma Thompson reported on their development and use of podcasts for teaching methods in “Improving Research Methods Teaching and Learning in Politics and International Relations: A ‘Reality Show’ Approach”. The team conducted interviews with researchers in politics and asking them about how they developed the research methods used in a piece of published research.
Koen Slootmaeckers, Bart Kerremans and Johan Adriaensen explored the role of statistics anxiety in teaching research methods in their piece, “Too Afraid to Learn: Attitudes towards Statistics as a Barrier to Learning Statistics and to Acquiring Quantitative Skills.” They examine the impact of a number of factors, including embedding quantitative methods in the broader curriculum, has on statistical anxiety and student ability to learn quantitative methods in a politics course.
