Teamwork, peer assessment and double revision of assignments as strategies for teaching quantitative research methods in Sociology

Abstract

Sociology and statistics are part of the study programme in many bachelor's degrees and masters, some of them not focused primarily on quantitative research methods. This is the case of specific business management programmes, where quantitative research methods in sociology appear marginally in a single subject. In such subjects, we think it is necessary to introduce innovative teaching strategies which could motivate and help students in their learning process. METHOD. Here we describe our experience and results after implementing teamwork, peer assessment and double revision of assignments as strategies for teaching quantitative methods applied to sociological research in the Sport Business Management Master (SBMM) of the University of Barcelona. RESULTS. We observed that the grades for teamwork activities are positively correlated among themselves and that the individual grades on peer-assessment activities help to distinguish between higher and lower performing students, because they are positively correlated with final exam grades. DISCUSSION. These strategies are always well-received by students and help them in their learning process. We conclude that peer assessment can be easily combined with teamwork and used in our context as an individual activity instead of a final exam.