WINTER 2012 - National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and ...

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Amy E. Smith and Ignacio J. Martinez-Moyano McCarthy, 2007; Sanderson, 2002). The extent and adequacy of research use depends on the existence of both (a) high-quality research that is relevant for practice and (b) adequate quantitative skills to understand and use such research (e.g., statistical knowledge). Our goal is to identify and describe techniques used by experienced statistics instructors to address challenges inherent in teaching statistics in practitioner-oriented master’s degree programs. Problems managers face are messy and ill defined (Ackoff, 1974; Churchman, 1967; Conklin, 2006; Horn, 2001; Rittel & Webber, 1973). When faced with a task or problem, practitioners need to be able to think critically, distinguish what is relevant from what is not, consider facts and relationships, systematically uncover alternatives, determine the effectiveness of programs and projects, use persuasive reasoning to support claims, and use data to inform decisions (Desai, 2008; Hill & Lynn, 2009; Hodges, 1996; Toulmin, 1964; Williams, Colomb, D’Errico, & Tracey, 2003). Thus, the ability to effectively explore existing theories and empirical research on what other practitioners and researchers have done or considered in similar situations is critical (Fitzpatrick, 2000; Meier, Brudney, & Bohte, 2006; Van de Ven & Johnson, 2006). However, practitioners do not always make decisions informed by research and evidence (Desai, 2008; Rousseau, 2006). What can we do to make practitioners better consumers of research? This paper explores one possible answer to this question—namely, to help instructors develop the tools and skills they need to grow “reflective practitioners” (Davenport & Markus, 1999; Rousseau, 2006, p. 20). While high-quality empirical research takes many forms, this project focuses only on quantitative, in particular, statistical empirical research. In this project, we identified the challenges facing statistics instructors and some of the practices for addressing these challenges. We employed a sample of experienced statistics instructors in the social sciences to identify the tools and techniques that are most effective in addressing the challenges inherent in teaching statistics to students enrolled in practitioner-oriented master’s degree programs. We distinguish practitioner-oriented master’s programs from other master’s degree programs in that individuals attending such programs are nonspecialists in the field of statistics. Students of this type of program tend to be consumers, rather than producers, of statistical research. This paper is divided into five sections. The first section reviews literature relevant to teaching statistics and discusses the use of the Delphi technique as a research method. The second section describes the data collection techniques and the methods used to analyze the data. The third section presents findings, implications, and discussion of our analysis. The fourth section describes an extended version of the model presented in Figure 1 of the introduction. The paper concludes with a discussion including limitations, contributions, and directions for future research. 110 Journal of Public Affairs Education
LITERATURE REVIEW Techniques in Teaching Statistics Teaching Statistics Because students often experience anxiety, a sense of intimidation, and lack of motivation when faced with statistics, such courses can be among the most challenging to teach—often resulting in similar emotional reactions for instructors (Calderwood, 2002; Forte, 1995; Schacht & Aspelmeier, 2005). Traditional statistics education has focused on the knowledge and skills components of learning or on the logical and physical aspects of understanding statistics, assuming that the desire to learn statistics or the mitigation of the emotional aspects will follow the acquisition of these skills. The emotional aspects represent the perceived value of statistics to students; they will engage themselves in statistics only if they see value in it (Calderwood, 2002; Snee, 1993; Zanakis & Valenzi, 1997). In past years, scholars have found evidence to suggest that students do not see the value in statistics. For example, even after students took a statistics course, Zanakis and Valenzi (1997) found that their interest in the subject and perceived worth of the subject declined. Jordan and Stroup (1984) suggested that although taking a statistics course may have resulted in a reduction in student fear of the course, it did little to persuade students of its value in the real world. Swanson, Meinert, and Swanson (1994) found that, compared with other core courses in a business curriculum, students perceive statistics to have little practical value, to be very difficult, and to have only average instructional effectiveness. In addition to past evidence of the perception that statistics has limited value, there is also evidence to suggest that students experience high anxiety about the course due to their lack of understanding of statistics, the fact that they are required to take tests in the subject, and their limited experience with using computer software for statistical calculations (Zanakis & Valenzi, 1997). It is noted, however, that in the most recent decade, computer usage has increased substantially both in education settings and in general life activities. Thus, general computer literacy might not represent an obstacle now; but students quite likely may continue to be unfamiliar with statistical software such as SPSS, STATA, or SAS. Even students who are comfortable with using a familiar software package such as Microsoft Excel for tasks like keeping track of information may be quite unfamiliar with the data analysis tools and statistical functions in this software program (formulas and mathematical functions, histograms, regression analysis, etc.). Math anxiety, lack of experience with specialized statistics software, perceived difficulty of the subject matter, and the assumption that statistics is not a valuable career or life skill can translate into student apprehension and lack of focus, instructor frustration, and, ultimately, a negative learning environment (Schacht & Aspelmeier, 2005). Journal of Public Affairs Education 111
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JPAE VOLUME 18 NUMBER 1 JOURNAL OF
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Journal of Public Affairs Education
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FROM THE EDITOR In the symposium in
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NASPAA Presidential Address Annual
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Leading by Example: Modeling Global
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FROM THE GUEST EDITOR FROM THE GUES
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FROM THE GUEST EDITOR A SYMPOSIUM I
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on other fronts, certainly it can h
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Picasso, P. (1937). Guernica. Pictu
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A View from the 50th Street Gate on
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Reflections of a Working-Class Acad
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Reflections of a Working Class Acad
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Reflections of a Working Class Acad
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Class Rooms Kenneth Oldfield Univer
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Class Rooms although I did, but not
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Class Rooms GRADUATE SCHOOL I was u
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Class Rooms the odds this appointee
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Class Rooms The Great Leveler, too
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Class Rooms of higher learning and
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ook (Oldfield & Johnson, 2009). The
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Didactic Changes Class Rooms Pedago
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Admittedly, it will be difficult to
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hooks, b. (2000). Where we stand: C
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Shaw, G. B. (1928). The intelligent
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What’s a Girl Like You Doing in a
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What’s a Girl Like You For exampl
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What’s a Girl Like You and operat
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What’s a Girl Like You captured t
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Page 111 and 112: REFERENCES Ashwander v. Tennessee V
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Table 1. Downloads of Papers at Sel
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Table 2. Top 10 Most Downloaded App
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Sharing Student Research with the W
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Analysts also determined the number
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Topical categories. As shown in Tab
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negative impact on ARP downloads (
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Knowledge and Skills for Policy Mak
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Stories from Local Public Managers
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and writing the proposal for the co
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Another echoes: Stories from Local
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I think communication is one of the
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Creating Quality Online Course Desi
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it was achieved. The assessment of
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Fulbright Program for Foreign Stude
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Review of Moral Controversies in Am
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application of those foundations to
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Journal of Public Affairs Education
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Information for Contributors The Jo
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