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

More documents

Recommendations

Info

Amy E. Smith and Ignacio J. Martinez-Moyano research use presented here underscores the relationships between the various challenges in teaching statistics and how particular tools and techniques may influence practitioner quantitative skills and ultimately the research-practice gap. CONTRIBUTIONS, LIMITATIONS, AND DIRECTIONS This project contributes to both research and practice in two primary ways. First, our study employs a systematic method to identify recommended teaching practices. To our knowledge, an electronic Delphi technique has not been used before for identifying areas of agreement among statistics instructors. In this study, we recognize the importance of experience and move understanding forward in this area by building on the work of Desai (2008), Mandell (2008), and Aguado (2009) by systematically collecting opinions from experienced statistics instructors to develop aggregate views. Second, the categories, ideas, and subsequent model provide aspects of teaching statistics that could and should be tested empirically in the classroom setting. Testing portions of this model in the classroom could provide a way to evaluate the effectiveness of different techniques with the student component included. Like all studies, the one presented here has limitations. First, the number of participants was lower than the target number. Second, dialogue among the participants was limited by the nature of the online discussion tool used. The Webwide participation tool allowed the moderators to conduct a group discussion with participants in a variety of time zones, thus eliminating the cost of holding focus groups across the United States. However, the pseudo-group discussion was not in real time and thus limited in-depth conversation among participants. Emerging from this study are several directions for future research. First, this study examined the opinions of “experienced” faculty. Comparing the results found here with the practices used by “new” faculty may prove insightful. Second, examining how such ideas are put into practice through classroom observation and interviews may provide greater depth to this study with the inclusion of a student perspective. Third, while a Web-based discussion tool was used for this project, it may be beneficial to discuss results in person in small groups within university departments or at academic conferences. Finally, these types of studies address the teaching of statistics to practitioners. Developing additional studies to determine how practitioners actually use statistics and to identify the needs of practitioners would be valuable. Practices that work well for one may not necessarily work well for another. Effectiveness of the suggestions provided here are undoubtedly relative to the course, the instructor, the program, and the student, among many factors. However, this project has systematically identified ideas that might serve as starting points for new faculty and that might be worth revisiting for experienced faculty. We hope that using such techniques to train future practitioners will help practitioners become better consumers of research and make better use 130 Journal of Public Affairs Education
Techniques in Teaching Statistics of research in their decision-making processes, resulting in improved policy outcomes. The results of this research imply that improving the way in which practitioners use research is not a single-actor problem or a matter of “changing the other side” (Shapiro et al., 2007, p. 261); the solution might very well involve the interaction of researchers, educators, and practitioners. This research recognizes that the tension between the producers and the consumers of research should be used to identify ways to coproduce actionable knowledge of high quality and relevance for practice, as suggested by Van de Ven and Johnson (2006), and to train current and future consumers of research. Ultimately, as Shapiro et al. (2007) suggest, if all the actors participate in the process, this process will strengthen the relationship between research and practice. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We gratefully acknowledge the contributions to this paper by Dr. George P. Richardson and Dr. John Rohrbaugh and the recommendations provided by three anonymous reviewers and the editorial board of JPAE. FOOTNOTES 1 This manuscript has been created by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory (“Argonne”). Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The U.S. Government retains for itself, and others acting on its behalf, a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license in said article to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public, and perform publicly and display publicly, by or on behalf of the Government. 2 See Bisgaard (1991) and Sowey (1995) for examples of experiential learning with statistics. 3 The final version of the questions was developed after pre-testing and pilot testing with several colleagues and statistics instructors. 4 Details on the computations for the prioritization step are available upon request. REFERENCES Ackoff, R. L. (1974). Redesigning the future: A systems approach to societal problems. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Adams, G. B., & White, J. D. (1994). Dissertation research in public administration and cognate fields: An assessment of methods and quality. Public Administration Review, 54(6), 565–576. Aguado, N. A. (2009). Teaching research methods: Learning by doing. Journal of Public Affairs Education, 15(2), 251–260. Alder, M., & Ziglio, E. (1996). Gazing into the oracle: The Delphi method and its application to the social policy and public health. Bristol, PA: Jessica Kingsley. Journal of Public Affairs Education 131
Page 1 and 2:
JPAE VOLUME 18 NUMBER 1 JOURNAL OF
Page 3 and 4:
Journal of Public Affairs Education
Page 5 and 6:
FROM THE EDITOR In the symposium in
Page 7 and 8:
NASPAA Presidential Address Annual
Page 9 and 10:
Leading by Example: Modeling Global
Page 11 and 12:
Page 13 and 14:
Page 15 and 16:
FROM THE GUEST EDITOR FROM THE GUES
Page 17 and 18:
FROM THE GUEST EDITOR A SYMPOSIUM I
Page 19 and 20:
on other fronts, certainly it can h
Page 21 and 22:
Picasso, P. (1937). Guernica. Pictu
Page 23 and 24:
A View from the 50th Street Gate on
Page 25 and 26:
Reflections of a Working-Class Acad
Page 27 and 28:
Page 29 and 30:
Page 31 and 32:
Reflections of a Working Class Acad
Page 33 and 34:
Reflections of a Working Class Acad
Page 35 and 36:
Class Rooms Kenneth Oldfield Univer
Page 37 and 38:
Class Rooms although I did, but not
Page 39 and 40:
Class Rooms GRADUATE SCHOOL I was u
Page 41 and 42:
Class Rooms the odds this appointee
Page 43 and 44:
Class Rooms The Great Leveler, too
Page 45 and 46:
Class Rooms of higher learning and
Page 47 and 48:
ook (Oldfield & Johnson, 2009). The
Page 49 and 50:
Didactic Changes Class Rooms Pedago
Page 51 and 52:
Admittedly, it will be difficult to
Page 53 and 54:
hooks, b. (2000). Where we stand: C
Page 55 and 56:
Shaw, G. B. (1928). The intelligent
Page 57 and 58:
What’s a Girl Like You Doing in a
Page 59 and 60:
What’s a Girl Like You For exampl
Page 61 and 62:
What’s a Girl Like You and operat
Page 63 and 64:
What’s a Girl Like You captured t
Page 65 and 66:
What’s a Girl Like You full-blown
Page 67 and 68:
What’s a Girl Like You inside). I
Page 69 and 70:
What’s a Girl Like You and collea
Page 71 and 72:
What’s a Girl Like You toward ser
Page 73 and 74:
Blue-Collar Teaching in a White-Col
Page 75 and 76:
Blue-Collar Teaching Half of my fam
Page 77 and 78:
Blue-Collar Teaching from physics.
Page 79 and 80:
Blue-Collar Teaching lifelong dream
Page 81 and 82:
Blue-Collar Teaching Before him, in
Page 83 and 84:
Blue-Collar Teaching One may argue
Page 85 and 86: Blue-Collar Teaching graduation in
Page 87 and 88: Blue-Collar Teaching advantages oth
Page 89 and 90: Carrizales, T. (2010). Exploring cu
Page 91 and 92: Oldfield, K. (2010). Socioeconomic
Page 93 and 94: Moving Forward by Looking Back Gary
Page 95 and 96: Moving Forward My father married my
Page 97 and 98: Moving Forward became apparent that
Page 99 and 100: Moving Forward to Duane, because he
Page 101 and 102: Moving Forward by this contaminant.
Page 103 and 104: Moving Forward quite by chance to b
Page 105 and 106: Moving Forward Federalist 51 detail
Page 107 and 108: Moving Forward their profession, in
Page 109 and 110: Moving Forward as the study shows,
Page 111 and 112: REFERENCES Ashwander v. Tennessee V
Page 113 and 114: Techniques in Teaching Statistics:
Page 115 and 116: Many researchers have explored the
Page 117 and 118: LITERATURE REVIEW Techniques in Tea
Page 119 and 120: Techniques in Teaching Statistics b
Page 121 and 122: Techniques in Teaching Statistics T
Page 123 and 124: Techniques in Teaching Statistics l
Page 125 and 126: Techniques in Teaching Statistics i
Page 127 and 128: Table 1. Downloads of Papers at Sel
Page 129 and 130: Figure 2. Expanded Model of Researc
Page 131 and 132: Techniques in Teaching Statistics o
Page 133 and 134: Figure 3. Expanded Model of Researc
Page 135: Techniques in Teaching Statistics L
Page 139 and 140: Felbinger, C. L., Holzer, M., & Whi
Page 141 and 142: Snee, R. D. (1993). What’s missin
Page 143 and 144: Are They Connected? Exploring Acade
Page 145 and 146: Exploring Academic and Social Netwo
Page 151 and 152: Figure 2. Career Advice Network Fig
Page 153 and 154: Table 1. Descriptive Statistics of
Page 155 and 156: network density, and network recipr
Page 157 and 158: Figure 5. Academic, Career Advice,
Page 163 and 164: Open Access Digital Repository: Sha
Page 165 and 166: Sharing Student Research with the W
Page 167 and 168: Table 1. Downloads of Papers at Sel
Page 169 and 170: Table 2. Top 10 Most Downloaded App
Page 175 and 176: Analysts also determined the number
Page 177 and 178: Topical categories. As shown in Tab
Page 179 and 180: negative impact on ARP downloads (
Page 187 and 188:
Sharing Student Research with the W
Page 189 and 190:
Knowledge and Skills for Policy Mak
Page 191 and 192:
Stories from Local Public Managers
Page 193 and 194:
Page 195 and 196:
Page 197 and 198:
and writing the proposal for the co
Page 199 and 200:
Another echoes: Stories from Local
Page 201 and 202:
I think communication is one of the
Page 203 and 204:
Page 205 and 206:
Page 207 and 208:
Page 209 and 210:
Page 211 and 212:
Page 213 and 214:
Page 215 and 216:
Creating Quality Online Course Desi
Page 217 and 218:
Page 219 and 220:
Page 221 and 222:
Page 223 and 224:
Page 225 and 226:
Page 227 and 228:
Page 229 and 230:
Page 231 and 232:
Page 233 and 234:
it was achieved. The assessment of
Page 235 and 236:
Fulbright Program for Foreign Stude
Page 237 and 238:
Page 239 and 240:
Page 241 and 242:
Page 243 and 244:
Page 245 and 246:
Review of Moral Controversies in Am
Page 247 and 248:
application of those foundations to
Page 249 and 250:
Journal of Public Affairs Education
Page 251 and 252:
Information for Contributors The Jo
show all

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

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?