The annual, one-day Cardiff Q-Step Conference will be taking place later this month on Thursday 24th September at Cardiff University. This year (20), the conference theme is Quantitative Pedagogy in Action. The Q-Step initiative is not just about more quantitative methods teaching, but how we teach quantitative methods. Q-Step also needs to tackle student perception of social science and create a constituency of young people who aspire to be social scientists. This conference takes place 18 months after the establishment of the Q-Step Centres. It is a critical exploration of teaching methods, assessment and the experiences and views of employers, teachers and other stakeholders. Relevant early findings from our Pedagogy of Methodological Learning project’s expert interviews will be presented by Prof. Melanie Nind and Dr Sarah Lewthwaite.

To register for the conference, visit: https://cardiff-q-step-2015.eventbrite.co.uk

The full schedule includes speakers drawn from across the UK, networking and discussion time. Presentations include:

Introduction: Revolution, resistance and entryism – six years of quantitative teaching at Cardiff
Professor Malcolm Williams, Director Cardiff Q-Step

Session One: Winning Hearts and Minds in the School and FE Sector

Rhys Jones, Cardiff University: ‘What and how we are teaching the 6th formers’,
Lisa Newman (Vice principal of St David’s 6th form college) and Janis Griffiths (former Chief Examiner of Sociology for Wales – WJEC) ‘Schools and colleges perspective’
Neil Sheldon, Vice President for Statistical Education and Literacy, Royal Statistical Society: ‘Developing Statistical Literacy: the RSS perspective’

Session Two- Developing Strategies for Teaching and Learning
Professor Denise Whitelock, Open University: ‘Optimising feedback for student motivation and engagement’.
Assessment and feedback: Moving towards Advice for Action
Professor Melanie Nind and Sarah Lewthwaite, Southampton University: ‘Teaching quantitative methods: Expert practitioners talk about pedagogy’

Session Three – The Employer Perspective
Introduction – Luke Sloan
Ed Dunn, Office for National Statistics
Brett Duggan, Arad Research

Session Four – Embedding Quantitative Content: the Cardiff Experience
Will Baker and Marco Pomati, Cardiff Q-Step: ‘Collaboration and quantitative embedding’
Honor Young, Cardiff Q-step: ‘Lies, Dammed Lies and Statistics’
Sin Yi Cheung, Cardiff Q-Step: ‘Race and Ethnicity module – two years on’

Panel Discussion with Students