Less Anxious, More Confident: the Use of Playful Pedagogy to support student learning of quantitative methods

Abstract

[EN] This paper presents findings from an evaluation of the Manchester Metropolitan University’s Q Step Centre’s uses of playful pedagogy to decrease undergraduate students’ anxiety and increase confidence when working with quantitative data. Students studying social science degrees often associate themselves as ‘Non-STEM’ due to previous bad experiences of maths, therefore, when students enrol onto a quantitative methods module this causes anxiety amongst the students. Through incorporating playful pedagogic techniques and bringing elements of fun to teaching sessions, this reduced anxiety and increased confidence in the learners, thus creating data confident social science graduates.