Teaching statistics is often a challenge but perhaps never more so than when teaching the subject to social science undergraduates. Many social science students avoid the post-GCSE study and practice of quantitative skills and are surprised (and often dismayed) to discover that they play an important role in the social sciences. These students may fail to accept that quantitative skills are an essential part of their social science education and they are likely to be frustrated in their encounters with statistical terms and concepts. Many students report that the material doesn’t seem to ‘stick’ the way that information about other aspects of their social science disciplines do: When they return to the material after days weeks or months it seems unfamiliar and they feel they have made little progress. These students lack confidence with statistical concepts and skills and frequently aim for merely avoiding failure rather than engaging in efforts for mastery. They ask for and often seem to benefit from individual tutorials but are part of an educational system that typically cannot invest the resources necessary to provide extensive one-on-one teaching.
