Teaching quantitative research methods: A quasi-experimental analysis

Courses on quantitative research methods play a central role in many undergraduate programs in sociology. However, students' anxiety over the courses is a major concern for instructors. Many students perceive the subject as inherently uninteresting and difficult. This paper describes an experiment designed to introduce aspects of quantitative reasoning into a large substantively focused class in the social sciences. The experiment assessed whether students can learn quantitative reasoning skills in the context of a large "nonmethods" class in sociology. The experiment measured students' mastery of these skills by comparing their competence at quantitative reasoning at the beginning and end of the class term. The results revealed that students' abilities to interpret and manipulate empirical data increased significantly. Further, the increase occurred independent of students' basic reasoning skills as measured by baseline SAT verbal and math scores. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for teaching quantitative methods in sociology undergraduate curricula.