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Difficulties Experienced by Education and Sociology Students in Quantitative Methods Courses

This study describes difficulties experienced in learning quantitative methods by university students. Education and sociology students were asked to rate different topics on the basis of their difficulty. It was found that statistics and quantitative methods were experienced as more difficult than other domains, such as qualitative methods and the students' main subject. Overall, it seems that students tend to polarise the academic subjects into 'easier' language, major and qualitative subjects, and 'harder' mathematical, statistical and quantitative subjects. The students were also asked to answer open-ended questions concerning the most difficult aspects of methodology courses and the reasons for their difficulties. Five main categories of reasons for difficulties were established: (1) superficial teaching, (2) linking theory with practice, (3) unfamiliarity with and difficulty of concepts and content, (4) creating an integrated picture of research in order to really understand it, and (5) negative attitudes toward these studies. The students who gave high ratings for the difficulty of statistical and quantitative subjects cited teaching most frequently as the reason. Those students who did not have many problems in statistical and quantitative subjects, but who still had more trouble with them in comparison to their major subject studies, mentioned negative attitudes as the main reason for difficulties.