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Description

This course introduces postgraduate students to a range of quantitative research methods that are commonly used within contemporary human geography. It is designed to equip first year graduate students with the knowledge, confidence and technical skills that are needed to complete a substantive piece of independent quantitative research in any area of human geography.

This is an introductory module and no prior familiarity with quantitative research methods or with software is assumed. Enrolment on this module is restricted to Geography MSc students only.

Indicative module topics include:

• The philosophical underpinnings of quantitative social science
• How to design a successful quantitative research project
• How to use statistical software to import and prepare datasets
• Describing and exploring data using descriptive statistics, graphs and maps
• Using statistical tests, statistical models and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to analyse various types of social science datasets

These indicative topics may be subject to variation depending on developments in academic research and the interests of the class.

Teaching delivery

The course is taught through a blend of instructor-led content and computer practical exercises supported by online resources.

Students completing the course will:

• Be able to devise research questions, hypotheses and research strategies to address them using numerical data
• Understand how to conduct quantitative research through the interrogation of a range of datasets using descriptive statistics, statistical tests, statistical models and Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

Skills development

Students completing the course will develop the following transferable careers skills:

• Critical thinking, particularly with regards to numerical data analysis
• Written and oral communication skills
• Expertise with GIS, statistical analysis and numerical modelling
• Coding
• Experience working in groups

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