Doing it step by step: a flipped classroom approach to teaching statistical analysis in social work

Abstract

Social workers should be trained in both qualitative and quantitative research methods, irrespective of whether they aspire to conduct research on their own or use research to inform their practice. The apparently problematic position of quantitative research methods in social work suggests, however, a need to explore new forms of teaching statistical analysis. In this article, we propose a flipped classroom approach to teaching statistical analysis for social work. In the empirical analysis, we investigate how students perceive this way of learning statistical analysis at a Norwegian university. The data are based on 3 years of evaluation data from a course on statistical analysis for master’s level graduate students of social work, with 2 years of data taken from before the COVID-19 pandemic and the last data point being during a period of lockdown. We discuss the most important factors for succeeding with this approach and explore if and to what extent the perceptions of students differed during the pandemic compared to the two previous years. Based on the findings, we argue that a flipped classroom approach to teaching statistical analysis may be one way of changing the apparent problematic position of quantitative research methods in social work.