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

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Amy E. Smith and Ignacio J. Martinez-Moyano student motivation, participation, and engagement; increases students’ desire to memorize, not understand; and helps decrease practitioner quantitative skills to understand and use research findings. As anxiety about statistics increases, student motivation, participation, and engagement decreases. Furthermore, as student motivation, participation, and engagement decreases, anxiety about statistics increases even further. Among the important hypothesized relationships in this model are several feedback mechanisms, indicated by R1, R2, R3, and R4 and identified with bold arrows in Figure 3. As discussed in the introductory section of this paper, the first feedback mechanism, the production-consumption loop (R1), shows the positive feedback relationship between the production of research and the consumption of research. As the quantity, quality, and relevance of research production increases, ceteris paribus, the extent and adequacy of research use will also increase. In addition, as research is used more by practitioners, the quantity and quality of research that is relevant to practitioners being produced will also increase. Thus a positive reinforcing feedback mechanism, which exists between the production and consumption of research, is created. Building on the positive reinforcing relationship between the production of research and the consumption of research, the improvement-by-success loop (R2) hypothesizes that as practitioner quantitative skills to understand and use research findings increase, so will the extent and adequacy of research use. As the extent and adequacy of research use increases, the success of policy implementation increases; and the perceived value and worth of statistics will also increase. When the success of policy implementation and perceived value and worth of statistics use increases, this will only further increase practitioner quantitative skills, thus creating a positive reinforcing mechanism between practitioner quantitative skills, use of research, and success of research-based policy implementation. In the tools-influence-attitude loop (R3), two of the challenges inherent in teaching statistics, designing tools effective for learning and student desire to memorize, not understand, are salient. In this feedback mechanism we capture the idea that with increased availability and use of tools effective for learning, the students’ desire to memorize, not understand decreases, leading to higher levels of quantitative skills. With increased quantitative skills, higher levels of use of research will be achieved, leading to additional success of policy implementation that, in turn, will increase the availability and use of tools that are effective for learning (e.g., successful real-life case studies to be used in the classroom). Therefore, we can see how these two challenges are part of a complex causal connection between the success of policy implementation and perceived value of statistics and the level of practitioner quantitative skills achieved. Moreover, these challenges, determine, over time, how success is achieved and how success can be used to further develop the potential for future success in the form of practitioner quantitative skills. 128 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Techniques in Teaching Statistics Lastly, the anxiety-and-motivation loop (R4) captures the interaction of skill development, anxiety, and motivation of students. In this loop, we see that as quantitative skills increase, the level of anxiety about statistics decreases, bringing student motivation, participation, and engagement up. As motivation grows, further increased levels of practitioner quantitative skills are achieved. The reinforcing process just depicted can become either an engine of success or a vicious cycle of failure. To deactivate the possibility of being locked into a downward spiral of high anxiety and low motivation, dealing with the quantitative underpreparedness of students, making use of relevant real-life applications, and developing student-centric considerations may be useful. DISCUSSION Returning to the initial motivation of this study, we want to work toward shrinking the research-practice gap by examining factors that influence the consumption of research by practitioners—in particular, the ability to comprehend and employ statistical techniques. If closing the research practice gap is important, then reflecting on and improving statistics instruction seems desirable. The development of practitioner statistics skills in the classroom is constrained by anxiety about statistics, quantitative underpreparedness, student desire to memorize rather than understand, challenges in developing tools that are effective for learning, and general lack of student motivation, participation, and engagement. By addressing these challenges with teaching techniques such as making interpretation rather than results a priority, using relevant real-life examples, requiring data collection exercises, employing computer applications, and so on, we may increase practitioner statistical skills. Increased practitioner statistical skills will, in turn, lead to increased research use. Increased research use then will lead to an increase in relevant, high-quality research production and thus shrink the researchpractice gap. Viewing the challenges associated with teaching statistics from a systems perspective is valuable. Understanding how one challenge may influence other challenges is useful when considering tools and techniques for addressing such challenges. So, for example, coming up with ways to address quantitative underpreparedness before taking a statistics course may serve to reduce anxiety; increase motivation, participation, and engagement; and ultimately result in an increase in practitioner quantitative skills. In addition, designing tools effective for learning will increase practitioner quantitative skills. Such tools will also decrease student desire to memorize, not understand, and this attitude in turn will increase practitioner quantitative skills. A broader point that can be derived from this thinking is that to increase the likelihood of successfully addressing the research-practice gap, the use of a systems approach seems warranted. Part of the model of research production and Journal of Public Affairs Education 129
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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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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 full-blown
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What’s a Girl Like You inside). I
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What’s a Girl Like You and collea
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What’s a Girl Like You toward ser
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Blue-Collar Teaching in a White-Col
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Blue-Collar Teaching Half of my fam
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Blue-Collar Teaching from physics.
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Blue-Collar Teaching lifelong dream
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Blue-Collar Teaching Before him, in
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Review of Moral Controversies in Am
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