Students as Subjects and Scholars: Qualquant Tools in the Classroom

Abstract

My experience attending two NSF Short Courses on Research Methods in Cultural Anthropology prompted me to use free list and pile sorting activities as teaching exercises with interesting and informative results that could be useful for others grappling with teaching research methods to undergraduates. My immediate goal in attending the course was inform my teaching of anthropological research methods. However, I also gained a new pedagogical tool that I have implemented in a wide range of classes to help students experience and understand the various qualitative and quantitative methods undertaken in social science research, while also redirecting their role as passive students to active scholars. The following paper outlines the implementation of this Museum Studies' free list and pile sorting exercises, considers the resultant data and impact on students in their own words, and provides some caveats for future implementation.