ABSTRACT
Research methodology courses are among the most challenging in university teaching (Earley, 2014; Wagner, Garner, & Kawulich, 2011). Students commonly feel such courses are dull and irrelevant to their needs, due to the abstractness of the content (Blalock, 1987; Bridges, Gillmore, Pershing, & Bates, 1998; Earley, 2014). In addition, methods courses are often more intellectually demanding than subject matter courses because they require students to grasp complex abstract principles and processes, and assessment items are more commonly located at the top of Bloom’s hierarchy of educational objectives (i.e. application). Research suggests these higher demands generate methods anxiety among students, leading them to avoid methodology courses (Blalock, 1987; Bridges et al., 1998; Earley, 2014). Students’ general aversion to methodology courses is problematic because the ability to conduct primary research and the capacity to distinguish credible empirical claims from invalid assertions should be some of the most important practical skills students take away from their studies in the social sciences (Marfleet & Dille, 2005; Ryan, Saunders, Rainsford, & Thompson, 2014).
