This is a draft of the presentation that will be given at the HEA Social Sciences annual conference - Teaching forward: the future of the Social Sciences. For further details of the conference: http://bit.ly/1cRDx0p Bookings open until 14 May 2014 http://bit.ly/1hzCMLR or external.events@heacademy.ac.uk ABSTRACT This paper provides an overview of a HEA funded project on communicating quantitative methods. The project seeks to explain how psephology - the analysis of voting data, opinion polls and similar electoral statistical data – can be used to develop active learning pedagogies. It explores how psephology can be embedded into the British Politics curriculum to introduce learners to quantitative methods and show the relevance of these approaches. The project is aimed at first year undergraduates and seeks simulate interest in data analysis as well as develop basic skills such as the ability to read tables, graphs and charts.

1. Psephology and Pedagogy: Data
analysis in British Politics learning and
teaching.
Andrew Gunn
HEA Annual Social Science Conference
Birmingham May 2014
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law
HEA Social Sciences strategic priorities
Teaching research methods in the Social
Sciences

2. Loyalty Points
The presentation is grounded in a ‘Loyalty points’ future scenario and uses this
potential polity as a context. In this world learners wish to develop a ‘toolbox of
skills’ to enable them to find, analyse and selectively share information. To be able
to source and understand numerical information, wherever it is found, is essential
for ambitious individuals to survive and succeed.
In this environment, individuals ‘seek out’ and ‘buy-in’ the skills they perceive they
need to give them the mobility to navigate the lattice of associations and affiliations
around them. Higher education is expected to empower learners to ‘find their niche’
as individuals and high expectations are placed on universities to provide a
distinctive and high quality learning experience. The state takes the role of
regulator, as opposed to funder, and the returns to education and value for money
are high priorities.
As a result of this, the need for basic quantitative research skills is paramount and
narratives around ‘pedagogies of discovery and exploration’ that underpin a rich
learning experience have become fashionable. The ideas in this presentation can
be regarded as preparation for learners within this possible future scenario.
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law

3. Context
Agendas such as ‘Q-Step’ identify the need to address dearth of numeric
skills and the unpopularity of methods teaching. In the Political Science
context:
Ryan et al. (2014) argue that student dissatisfaction with undergraduate
research methods courses in politics is common and suggest that methods
teaching suffers from an unhealthy disassociation between research in
theory and research in practice. Students often feel alienated by the lack of
clear connections between methods and the subject knowledge they
encounter in the rest of their degree.
Adaney and Carey (2009) identify “the most effective way to teach research
methods is to ensure that the course is not a stand-alone one, but is
integrated into the ethos of the department”.
Leston-Bandeira (2013) advocates a discipline-embedded research-
oriented approach where students have a sense of ownership in their
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law

4. Rationale
As attention has shifted from the postgraduate to undergraduate provision of
methods teaching, I argue there is the need to reconsider the curriculum at the
preparatory level and the first impression learner’s form of quantitative
methods. There is a need to explain to learners the fundamental rationale for
data analysis and to ‘break-the-ice’ where numbers are involved.
This project unites subject knowledge with methods through building a bridge
between issues in British Politics and psephology. British Politics is an ideal
application as there is a large quantity of up-to-date ‘real world data’ that can
be directly embedded into the curriculum.
The project seeks to communicate the value of quantitative analysis to first
year undergraduates through showing the potential of these methods using
active learning pedagogies. It seeks to stimulate some initial interest and
highlight why students should use quantitative methods in the future. It is
based on the assumption that students have little prior understanding of data
analysis and need to be introduced to these themes gradually.
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law

5. Project Aims
1. Focus exclusively on the first year undergraduate curriculum to develop
introductory level skills and create a positive ‘first impression’ of quantitative
methods.
2. To demonstrate how psephology can be used in learning resources to embed
quantitative methods into the curriculum and explain the relevance of data.
3. Develop teaching materials using active learning pedagogies to deliver the
above.
The intended benefits of the project include making learners:
a. appreciate the full range of British Politics literature, and understand the role of
data analysis as it is found in existing publications involving numbers
b. be more confident and competent in reading tables, maps, graphs and charts
c. be aware of the data sources that exist, the organisations that collect it, how
quantitative evidence is used in decision making both within political parties and
government (and indirectly the graduate careers requiring quantitative skills)
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law

6. Psephology
Psephology is the analysis
of voting and opinion poll
data.
The results of UK elections
provides a wealth of
information, both as raw
data and in secondary
sources. Students can be
introduced to data on voter
turnout, and party
performance by national
share and constituency.
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law

7. The
British
Election
Study
The British Election Study is funded by
the ESRC and has been conducted at every
General Election since 1964. Its main goal
is to describe and to explain why people
vote, why they vote as they do, what affects
the outcome, and the consequences for
democracy in Britain.
Although attention has been paid to
maximise the value of the BES for
researchers, little work has been
undertaken to maximise the resource for
teaching purposes.
Each year NatCen's
British Social Attitudes
survey asks over 3000
people what it's like to live
in Britain and what they
think about how Britain is
run. Since 1983 it has
measured and tracked
changes in people's social,
political and moral
Psepholog
y
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law

8. Psephology
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law
Polling is a big business
and the companies
provide a continuous
supply of data which can
be harnessed as a
teaching resource

9. A strength of polling data is the topical
nature of the information which relates to
contemporary events. Whereas there is
a time-lag in academic publishing, polling
data is increasingly ‘instant data’ enabling
some taught content to follow changing
political phenomena.
Polling data is also wide ranging,
including voting intentions, perceptions
of party leadership, and the views of
voters on a range of issues. Much of this
data can be broken down by variables
such as class, age, gender and
geography.
Psepholog
y
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law

10. Active Learning Pedagogies
This project is situated at the intersection of the British politics curriculum,
psephology, communicating quantitative methods and active learning
pedagogies.
To successfully embed psephology into the curriculum we need to
consider the whole learning process and the role of more interactive,
collaborative and student-centred approaches. Psephology provides a
good opportunity for hands-on data handling on the part of the learners
and an opportunity to develop active learning activities on the part of
teachers.
Active learning pedagogies place the student at the centre of the learning
process where they are ‘active’ - as opposed to ‘passive’ - learners.
Student engagement and reflection characterise active learning, which
may develop academic skills such as analysis, synthesis and evaluation
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law

11. Lecture
Private time
reading
Seminar
Psephology and Pedagogy
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law
Academic
Literature
Psepholog
y
Theory and
Concepts
Large group teaching to
introduce topic and equip
students with relevant theories
and concepts. Tutor-led
didactic approaches work well
for this purpose
Active learning
pedagogies
where students
explore real data
and trends in
practice –
informed by
knowledge of
theories.
Provides a
different small
group learning
experience and
develops different
skills
Where to situate the active learning
pedagogies:
Reading select
academic
books and
journal articles
to deepen
student
knowledge

12. Psephology and Pedagogy
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law
 Learning materials were developed to
realise the project objectives based on the
UK 2010 General Election.
 These were designed to show a strong
and succinct connection to subject
knowledge.
 These were sourced from both polling and
electoral datasets and some analysis
undertaken in published academic British
Politics scholarship.
 The initial idea for the project came from
feedback that some learners were finding
reading tables and graphs very challenging.
Lema at al. (2013) explain how the
interpretation of graphs such as histograms
and box plots is not always easy for Ipsos MORI: How Britain Voted in 2010
Voting and
social class

13. Party Seats +/- Votes % +/-%
PR
Seats
Conservative 307 +97 10,726,614 36.1 +3.8 234
Labour 258 -91 8,609,527 29.0 -6.2 189
Liberal
Democrat
57 -5 6,836,824 23.0 +1.0 150
2010 Election:
Effects of First Past of the Post
The difference between seats and
votes
The estimated number of seats there would be
under proportional representation
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law
Psephology and Pedagogy
 The activities assume learners have background
knowledge. For example, theories of voting behaviour:
Expressive: Social Class vs. Instrumental: rational
actors.
 Polling and electoral
data were selected
that can be ‘plugged
into’ key debates and
a series of questions
and activities devised
to structure learning.

14. The activities include mainly interpreting data but also
data handling, analysis and presentation.
Including:
 Reading data in tables with rows and columns or
presented in a wide range of ways including graphs and
maps
 Reading and understanding data analysis as it appears
in published articles
 Investigating if theory can be found in practice: how
trends in actual electoral data match up to theories in
voting and elections literature
 Looking to see how powerful certain variables are in
explaining voting behaviour at a particular election
 Assessing historical trends, such as voter turnout
overtime
Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law
Psephology and Pedagogy

15. Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law
Psephology and Pedagogy
 In the class, the tutor is
guiding the process not
delivering knowledge
 The activities were
successful at being 'self
sustaining’; where the
data raised further
questions, which the
students sought to
answer
 Further fine-tuning and
evaluation are required
Polling data into the perceptions of leadership
across a series of a televised debates
 Students explored the data to search for their own trends and find interesting
facts
 Data revealed trends the students were not aware of
 Student undertook basic data handling and presentation

16. Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law
Thank you very much
Andrew Gunn
a.s.gunn@leeds.ac.uk

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Faculty of Education, Social Science and Law