Statistical Analysis of an Educational Research Study

• Activity Number: 353
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 2, 2011 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Carolyn Bradshaw Morgan*+ and Anne Pierce and Spencer Baker and Arun Verma and Morris Morgan and Vitali Khaikine
• Companies: Hampton University and Hampton University and Hampton University and Hampton University and Hampton University and Hampton University
• Keywords: data analysis ; assessment ; education curriculum ; statistical education

Abstract

Statistics is indeed an all-encompassing discipline. Good statistical data analysis is critical to evaluating the success of many educational research studies. A research study is being conducted to investigate the impact of a new instructional format on student learning outcomes in calculus. One of the goals of the study is to assess the importance of faculty mentors and role models on the performance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) majors, especially members of underrepresented groups. The study addresses the STEM student population enrolled in the gate-keeper Calculus I course. Some of the calculus classes have received the standard classroom instruction while other sections have received the FORCE (financially oriented research calculus experience) classroom instruction. All sections of the course receive a pre- and post-calculus readiness test. All student take a standard final exam and a grade of "C" or higher is considered passing for all students. A discussion of the statistical analysis techniques and results to date will be presented.