Making Social Work Count: A Curriculum Innovation to Teach Quantitative Research Methods and Statistical Analysis to Undergraduate Social Work Students in the United Kingdom

ABSTRACT

Students in the United Kingdom (UK) are found to lack knowledge and skills in quantitative research methods. To address this gap, a quantitative research method and statistical analysis curriculum comprising 10 individual lessons was developed, piloted, and evaluated at two universities The evaluation found that BSW students’ (N = 81) self-efficacy improved significantly from pre- to posttest, but statistical knowledge improved only slightly and the improvement was not statistically significant. The findings point to recommendations for social work educators in the UK and beyond to consider when integrating the 10-input quantitative method curriculum and when teaching research methods and statistics to undergraduate social work students.

KEYWORDS:

• BSW students
• curriculum development
• quantitative methods
• research self-efficacy
• statistics
• teaching research

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J011835/1).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/J011835/1).