Research Methods Resources

Teaching

Quick links to some resources on this page

Software for teaching statistics

The Green Book

How to use this CD-ROM for teaching at the university

Teaching of research methods often happens in a non-efficient way because of following reasons:

• it is part of a general education system that focuses on examination rather than education

• research method courses are disconnected from other courses

• or they focus on statistics or biometrics in a very mathematical way which results in poor understanding of the usefulness of the subject but also in students being simply afraid of the course

• some topics are often missing: initial problem analysis, research ethics, how to deal with fraud, research as a social process (relations with supervisors etc.), ...

• in many developing countries, there is a lack of teaching resources and lecturers or trainers have to use a dilapidated infrastructure

• the course is almost exclusively taught as a series of lectures

"Doing research" is a highly structured way of learning. The structure lies in its use of the scientific method. Good teaching is therefore extremely important while teaching research methods.

Organising a research methods course as a series of lectures is not the best way to get the message through. The average attention span of any person listening to a lecturer is less than 20 minutes. If you now at the same time expect your students to write their own notes without giving them reference material, they can only focus on writing things down, not on understanding what you are explaining.

Some ideas to get you started:

1. Students are more than human photocopy machines.

This CD contains a lot of resources. You could give a CD to each student and use it during your classes. This way you save a lot of time during lectures and tutorials. Instead of dictating notes, you can refer to material on the CD as reading material and move on to teach more challenging stuff. Or give assignments to study introductory concepts using resources on this CD or using on-line resources this CD is referring to such as JSTOR that are now completely free for use by academic institutes in Africa. Or start using interactive software such as CAST for Africa.

You or the students are allowed to make copies of the CD, so if you don’t have enough CD’s to give to every single student, let them make copies. Students all over the world know how to copy the latest music CDs. They’ll easily find a way to copy this CD.

2. Let the students themselves install GenStat and ask for a license key.

If you’re working in an environment where the students’ computer literacy is rather low, they might be confused about the installation process. So, explain them how to install the software and apply for a license and let them do the installation themselves. Stress especially the fact that after the installation they still need to register for a license but that also the license is free and that the computer on which GenStat Discovery Edition is installed does not necessarily has to be connected to the Internet. This way, as a resource person you loose 1 or perhaps 2 hours of lecture time but you save yourself a lot of time installing GenStat on all computers. Also, students will be able to install GenStat Discovery Edition on their home computer or will be able to renew the license.

3. Encourage the students to learn the software themselves.

Teaching software is a waste of time. Instead, focus on contents, concepts and exercises. Software is just a tool, changes continuously and there exist a lot of software. Students should be encouraged to develop an attitude to learn software themselves by reading manuals and trying out things. This will prepare them to be adaptive to changes in their professional careers.

The introductory manual of GenStat Discovery Edition that is provided on the CD gives you an opportunity to change your teaching approach. (The manual is also available in French.) Go to the GenStat Discovery Edition documentation page for more details.

You could give the students for instance one week to go through the manual and repeat all exercises at their own time. Then the next week you only need to give a brief summary and do some spot-checks to see if everybody understood. After that you can immediately move on to teach more exciting stuff using real data.

4. More ideas in the sections on teaching.

The Research Methods Resources part of this website contains many resources on the different steps in a research project. Under each step there is a brief section with ideas how to use this when teaching. Try them out, adapt, improve and give us feedback.

Software

CAST for Africa (Computer-Assisted Statistics Teaching) from Douglas Stirling of Massey University, New Zealand.

Go to the CAST page

Instat⁺, a general statistical package from the Statistical Services Centre of the University of Reading.

Go to the Instat⁺ page

SSC-Stat, an MS Excel add-in from the Statistical Services Centre of the University of Reading.

Go to the SSC-Stat page

Statistical games developed by the Statistical Services Centre of the University of Reading and in collaboration with BUCS from The University of Nairobi.

Go to the Statistical games page

The Green Book

There are many books and materials available to graduate students but most are targeted to students in the developed world and very few are specifically directed at rural development and African students. Graduate studies play an important role in contributing to research and development in African agriculture. Combining research and development, working for and with rural people, and making a real difference to the future requires special skills and approaches that are not often required in the industrialised world. Students need to be able to balance their academic requirements with the needs of projects and rural participants. They need the skills and adaptability to work in interdisciplinary teams and to understand what is required both for their specific discipline and the broader requirements.

This book arose from the experience of the editors who have worked closely with agriculture, environment and rural development postgraduate students in African universities. All the authors who were invited to contribute have wide experience and close connections with universities mainly in eastern and southern Africa.

The information is presented in four main parts, each containing several chapters. Each chapter’s title page has a set of bullet points in the left-hand margin that guide you to the chapter’s content. These four main parts are followed by a short chapter that is intended to inspire further efforts. Within the text are hints and highlights printed in italics and bold type. These are not an excuse to skip the main text , but rather as aide-memoires to points of emphasis in the chapter.

Throughout this CD we have referred to specific chapters of this book. On the link below you can find the whole book as a pdf. 

Patel, Bharati K., Muir-Leresche, Kay, Coe, Richard and Hainsworth, Susan D. (Eds.). 2004. The Green Book: A Guide to Effective Graduate Research in African Agriculture, Environment, and Rural Development. The African Crop Science Society, Kampala, Uganda. 248 pp. ISBN 9970 866 00 1

GreenBook.pdf (15,449 KB !)

Research Methods Resources

GenStat Discovery Edition