Teaching with ESDS data

using ESDS data in teaching

The use of data in teaching is an invaluable way for learners to engage with real-life research. By investigating the collections held at ESDS, learners can find out how real data is originally conceived, collected, analysed and managed. Data based on well-known studies or surveys can bring both substantive and methodological topics alive. Using data in teaching can also enable critical engagement through the evaluation of the strengths and limitations of particular collections and their methodologies.

Our catalogue holds a growing collection of data, with currently over 5,000 collections. Each study is accompanied by both data and documentation, and increasingly the value of this documentation is being recognised as a training resource in its own right, elements of which the students might adapt for their own research. Documentation may include, for example, information on issues relating to research design, sampling, questionnaire or topic guide construction and coding or presentation of data.

The ESDS Data Catalogue contains a rich source of demographic, economic, behavioural and attitudinal data with which to address many substantive topics. Such data may be used in conjunction with the main publications arising from the analysis conducted by the study's originators.

Students could be asked to replicate research already conducted, to extend this research or to examine the data from an entirely different perspective.

By using the data directly, students gain a good appreciation of the limitations and variations amongst different measures. For example, they might work through the method of calculating the weights for the retail price index or they might explore the relationship between the estimate of unemployment arising from the Labour Force Survey and that from unemployment benefit claimant counts.

Several data series in our collection are good sources for comparative analysis.

The most notable are the Eurobarometer Survey Series conducted across all EU countries simultaneously using the same questionnaires, and the International Social Survey Programme in which an identical core of questions are included in surveys in twenty-two countries.

Students may find the British Social Attitudes Survey of particular interest since the topics change in each annual survey but are repeated periodically, thus enabling the analysis of the change in attitudes over time. There is an annual report which provides excellent material for further exploration by students at a range of levels of statistical expertise.

The OECD and World Bank macro databanks held by ESDS are specifically designed and harmonised for cross-country comparative analysis.

A large number of data sources in our Data Catalogue permit the exploration of change over time, including change in: the demographic or other aspects of the structure of society, behavioural patterns, and attitudes.

Longitudinal data can result from a number of different designs - fresh cross-sectional designs such as the British Social Attitudes Survey; panels such as the British Household Panel Survey; rotating panels such as the Labour Force Survey; and cohorts such as the National Child Development Study. This material can be used for an exploration of the various methods of collecting data over time and their implications for the analysis and interpretation of both point-in-time estimates and estimates of change.

All the ESDS international macro databanks contain times series data. For example, the IMF’s International Financial Statistics, which is updated every month, contains very long and consistent time series that paint a complete portrait of global economic change, growth and crises over the last 50 years (see some real-life sample course plans used in teaching).

Data can be used in teaching on various methodological issues connected with the collection and analysis of data.

• data collection methods

  • Survey series may change aspects of study methodology over time, such as data collection method or mode, thus permitting an analysis of these effects. In a small number of cases, changes have been introduced on a split panel basis which gives more precise estimates of the methodology effects.
  • ESDS Qualidata offers a pre-packaged teaching resource for introducing qualitative data collections methods covering seven types of interviewing approaches and non-interview data collections methods that can be used to compare research strategies and resulting data.

• sampling

  • Students could be asked to: explore the relationship between sample size and precision using a small number of key datasets; discuss why different datasets are based on very different sample sizes; explore different sampling frames.
  • Several of the key official surveys, from the Electoral Register to the Postcode Address File, have changed their sampling frame and could be used to explore the effects of such changes.

• coder variability

  • Datasets sometimes contain the text of verbatim material in addition to coded material.
  • It can be a valuable exercise to have students code a sample of the material themselves and to explore different aspects of coder variability such as the: differences between the original coding and the students' coding; within coder variability; between coder variability; and variability in the use of a particular code.
  • More advanced students might then examine the likely impact of such variability on estimates, particularly estimate of change over time.

• non-response and missing data

  • Surveys suffer from a substantial range of non-response and there is a wealth of hypotheses which can be explored by students in examining why non-response varies, how it may be reduced and what factors correlate with non-response.
  • The large-scale Government surveys, which have been subjected by ONS to detailed non-response checks, are particularly rich sources to exploit.
  • Students might go on to look at the use of different weighting schemes to adjust for non-response. Similarly, students might explore the level and distribution of missing data on studies, and evaluate the effects of this on the analysis and interpretation of the data.
  • Advanced students could devise imputation procedures to adjust for missing data and, where imputation has been used by the original researchers and the imputed values are flagged, examine the data with and without these values.

• consent and ethics

  The UK Data Archive provides guidance and training resources on ethics, confidentiality and consent in data sharing and re-use.

• secondary analysis of qualitative data

  This is a relatively newly documented method and ESDS Qualidata have been pioneers in promoting it. The opportunities and challenges of re-using qualitative data can be found on the ESDS Qualidata website.

Managing research data

ESDS is always looking for partnerships with academics and trainers to create new resources for teaching based on either specific data collections or on comparative sources.