Educational Research - the Ethics and Aesthetics of Statistics

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134 U. Stadler-Altmann and E. Keiner collected data and theories that provide a pool of information and meaning. This serves as the structural background for the presentation, which to some extent can be perceived as a scholarly performance to satisfy the audience. Poems are based on everyday language and a pool of – in our example German – words with ambiguous and different meanings and practices, which can be perceived as a literary composition to enchant the reader. The researcher, looking over the results and imagining the possible audience, selects those words and graphs which illustrate his/her research questions and answers. Like the researcher, the poet selects those words and symbols that she/he assumes would help the audience to understand her/his meaning. Kurt Schwitters uses two types of symbols: words and graphical presentation (in his recitation of ‘Anna Blume’, which was recorded since 1922, he also uses different emphases). In an oral presentation of educational statistical research we often use mathematical symbols, which immediately become transferred into everyday language and take on different meanings. And, similar to the expectation of Kurt Schwitters, we presuppose that the scholarly audience knows the particular meaning in our particular context. However, both, the poet and the author of research presentations often do not chart the reaction of the audience. Therefore, they can never be sure about the degree and mode of understanding. The magic in the poem ‘Eve Blossom’ [‘Anna Blume’] is the arrangement of the words, the emphasis and the breaks between the words or the stanzas. Even the new and surprising combination of words like the grammatically incorrect phrase ‘I love thine’ [‘ich liebe dir’ (3)] or the illogical phrase ‘Blue is the colour of your yellow hair’ [‘Blau ist die Farbe deines gelben Haares’ (19)] make us imagine the magic. The magic in educational research sometimes issues from statistics. New combinations and new methods seem to serve as ‘magic’ for the scholarly audience. In this case the author produces her-/himself as an expert: an expert similar to the author of a poem. Nobody would ask Kurt Schwitters to use grammar in a correct way and, during an oral presentation few people would query the use of the statistical methods (though they might do this after the presentation). Knowledge about statistical methods is taken for granted in the scientific community. Most questions, therefore, addressed from experts to the presenter, will focus on contents and not on basic mathematical techniques and statistical procedures. When describing the understanding of the scholarly audience of the research presentation, which is similar to the understanding of a poem, we should also focus upon the poems’ performance in a live setting. Some people in the audience have an emotional response, others hear only the spoken words, and others primarily see figures and concepts. There are people who reify empirical concepts viewing them as real objects that exist outside the human brain. Indeed, most empirical or statistical presentations discuss characteristics of functions and groups just as scientists discuss the structure of physical materials. It can be said that the statistical and even mathematicians’ perception of mathematical concepts is structural perception. However, in mathematical textbooks we can find definitions that uncover a different kind of perception: process-based perception. The latter is based on a dynamic imagery of mathematical concepts. Sfard (1991) says that structural perception precedes object perception. He describes the development from an operational to a
9 The Persuasive Power of Figures and the Aesthetics of the Dirty Backyards 135 structural conception as a process of reification. In order to internalise the concept meaning, the student becomes acquainted with it by computing in single steps. These steps connect to each other in the next phase of condensation. Reification is the ability to see the concept as a whole. It is a static state where ‘the concept becomes semantically unified by this abstract and purely imaginary construct’ (Sfard, 1991, p. 20). It is not only possible to compare the composition of a poem and an oral research presentation, the graphical format also reveals analogous shapes. You could read, sing or dance an empirical data set, and read, interpret or present a poem as an empirical result. This is shown in the figures below. Datensatz A Datensatz B 8 8 8 3 2 2 1 9 5 4 4 3 3 4 3 3 2 1 3 Extremes 1 2 3 4 1 1 1 2 2 3 4 5 7 7 2 2 4 3 3 3 4 5 8 8 1 2 9 9 9 9 2 Extremes Stem width: 10 Each leaf: 1 case(s) (Source: http://marktforschung.wikia.com/wiki/Stem-and-Leaf) 4 Oo bee bee bee bee bee 3 Oo zee zee zee zee zee 3 4 1 4 4 8 8 1 4 4 8 8 Oo enn ze 1 enn ze 1 Oo . . . 1 8 8 4 8 8 4 1 (leise, gleichmä ig) Source: www.kurt-schwitters.org/n,750017,2050046,1.html Is this a part of statistical output? Like a stem-leaf diagram? No, it is also poetry; the latter example is Kurt Schwitters’ ‘Ursonate in Urlauten’. Here we see that poets use words in new combinations and graphical ways to express and illustrate their impressions. Empirical researchers take combinations of words and figures to express and illustrate their understanding of our world and social relationships. However, to make analogy is not to say that these two things are the same, which raises the question: and the truth?
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Educational Research: The Ethics an
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Paul Smeyers · Marc Depaepe Editor
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Earlier Volumes in this Series Educ
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viii Contents 10 The Good, the Beau
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2 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe their a
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4 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe more fo
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6 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe The cha
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8 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe concern
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10 P. Smeyers and M. Depaepe appear
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Chapter 2 The Lure of Statistics fo
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2 The Lure of Statistics for Educat
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28 M. Depaepe of the Leuven Catholi
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30 M. Depaepe Tan’s final verdict
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32 M. Depaepe of methodological bot
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34 M. Depaepe tapping other sources
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36 M. Depaepe In the context of dem
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38 M. Depaepe combination. Moreover
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40 M. Depaepe 4. See Pelleriaux (19
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42 M. Depaepe Schneider, J. (2010).
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44 J.J.H. Dekker (see Section 4.4).
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46 J.J.H. Dekker from their own par
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48 J.J.H. Dekker a cohort study tha
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50 J.J.H. Dekker child” (Van IJze
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52 J.J.H. Dekker USA resulted in ev
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54 J.J.H. Dekker of the problem”.
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56 J.J.H. Dekker Dekker. J. J. H.,
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Chapter 5 Constructing Social Unity
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5 Constructing Social Unity and Pre
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184 I. Munday is unclear whether th
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186 I. Munday in numerals. This mig
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188 I. Munday We might also note th
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190 R. Smith ‘Statisticism’, on
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192 R. Smith identify, and twice in
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194 R. Smith of the final sentence
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196 R. Smith between admitting that
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198 R. Smith 7 www.equalitytrust.or
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200 R. Smith It is an interesting q
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202 R. Smith self-esteem, happiness
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204 R. Smith Reeves, R. (2009, Apri
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206 P. Standish Some students’ no
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208 P. Standish abstract ratio, wit
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210 P. Standish Rice $1.73 1 / 2 Mo
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212 P. Standish research none of us
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214 P. Standish of the products but
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216 About the Authors co-editor-in-
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218 About the Authors voor Wetensch
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220 Author Index Elkins, G. R., 190
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222 Author Index Silverman, J. G.,
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224 Subject Index I Inequality, 29-
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