Peer Review

Exercises for Analyzing Religious Variables

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Reviewed:: Jan 3, 2021 by Sociology

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Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: These exercises were written for courses that include a component on religion as well as for courses that introduce quantitative analysis. The Pew Research Center has conducted a number of surveys that deal with religion. Two of these surveys are the Religious Landscape Surveys conducted in 2007 and then repeated in 2014. They were very large telephone surveys of about 35,000 adults in the United States. These exercises use a subset of the 2014 survey. If you choose to use SPSS or PSPP to analyze the data, there are tutorials on these statistical packages available at http://ssric.org/trd/exercises. You have permission to use these exercises and to revise them to fit your needs.
Type of Material:: Assignment.
Recommended Uses:: The material is written for introductory level students in quantitative methods and/or for students studying social aspects of religion. It is a step-by-step guide to data analysis and interpretation. It can be used for homework or to supplement in-class learning. The focus is on percentages, cross-tabs, Chi-Square and measures of association.
Technical Requirements:: Need a statistical package such as SPSS or PSPP to analyze data.
Identify Major Learning Goals:: This resource has 20 exercises that can be used in an introduction to quantitative analysis or as a supplement to a Sociology of Religion course. It is broken down by topic: Religion and Measurement; Religion and Social Issues; Religious Mobility, Comparisons between Spouses; and Comparison between Religious Goups.
Target Student Population:: College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division, Graduate School, Professional.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Some familiarity with SPSS or other statistical package.

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: The step-by-step instructions make it easy for students to become familiar with statistical analysis and interpretation using interesting data on religion in the USA. Exercises can be used individually and/or by topic.
Concerns:: Students might need assistance with the statistical package.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

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Strengths:: This material can be adapted for multiple purposes. It also allows instructors to make modifications to the exercises. The website is simple and straightforward and can easily be integrated into the course content.
Concerns:: None.

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The flexibility, step-by-step directions, and topic area make these exercises easy to integrate into a number of courses from quantiative methods/statistics to courses where social aspects of religion are studied. There are two appendices that the instructor ought to read before using the exercises – one on the data subset and the other on using the exercises in the classroom. There is a complete listing and hotlinks to the exercises at the bottom of the page and there is a section on additional resources for the instructor, as well as contact information for the authors.
Concerns:: Some modification may be necessary, if using all exercises.

Other Issues and Comments:

This is a nice addition to the several webpages which together can comprise a course in statistics all of which are on Merlot.

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