The workshop will take place as part of the Method School 2026 (February 3–6, 2026) at the Zurich University of Teacher Education. Methodenschule 2026 | PHZH. Registration for the workshop is mandatory (see link to the website). 

The workshop will be held by Dr. Uta Liebeskind (University of Siegen).

Description

This workshop provides an introduction to working with longitudinal data sets. We will use data sets that are commonly employed in empirical educational research, such as TREE, and to a lesser extent, PISA and NEPS. The workshop shows how complex data sets are structured and how the data is prepared for analysis in cross-sectional and longitudinal designs (panel analyses and, upon request, survival/time-to-event analyses). Participants will also be introduced to working with data set documentation and will become aware of aspects of study design and missing data. We will perform sample analyses of common procedures and discuss the results. However, the workshop’s main focus is on techniques for accessing and preparing complex data sets. We will work with R/RStudio. There will be opportunities for individual practice.

The aim is to enable participants to work independently with complex datasets.

Target group

Doctoral students and researchers with basic knowledge of univariate and bivariate data analysis

Prior knowledge

Participants must have basic knowledge of working with R, or be confident in syntax-based data analysis using another application (e.g. Stata or IBM SPSS). Basic knowledge of multivariate data analysis is welcome but not essential.