Webster defines a specialist as someone who devotes himself or herself to one subject or a particular branch of a subject. This course has asked us to devote ourselves to diving deep into research and critically look at data about our schools, our students and most importantly at our own practices as educators. This data becomes the source by which we re-think our methods and attitudes so that we might obtain better student outcomes.
I would have never believed that I was capable of obtaining any form of “research literacy” and yet we have been pushed in ways that has helped us become more proficient at understanding the articles we have read, our school’s data and the data we collect on our students every day. Although, I have no desire to take a statistics course I would like to better understand the data of my school and county. This research class gave us hypothetical situations and asked us to use the predetermined formula functions in Excel to answer questions about the data. We learned how to use the functions from hypothetical data to gain practice in creating and analyzing; descriptive analysis, rank and percentile, and paired t-tests. We then analyzed the data and articulated what the information meant. I had used Excel for personal banking information; however I was amazed with the data function and what it is capable of. For that reason it is my hope that our school can begin to use Excel with our ongoing classroom assessments and create useful charts that give feedback about students’ progress and consequently help us improve instruction.
If I were to tell myself anything it would be to calm down. When I first read the syllabus I was truly overwhelmed and would not have believed I would have any understanding of research, let alone conduct my own research project. The course was broken down into manageable parts and that made a tremendous difference in our understanding of introductory statistics and how to interpret it. These exercises were essential in helping me articulate the findings of my own research. The professors did an excellent job allowing each part of the course build on the next until we finally had a completed research project.
I would have never believed that I was capable of obtaining any form of “research literacy” and yet we have been pushed in ways that has helped us become more proficient at understanding the articles we have read, our school’s data and the data we collect on our students every day. Although, I have no desire to take a statistics course I would like to better understand the data of my school and county. This research class gave us hypothetical situations and asked us to use the predetermined formula functions in Excel to answer questions about the data. We learned how to use the functions from hypothetical data to gain practice in creating and analyzing; descriptive analysis, rank and percentile, and paired t-tests. We then analyzed the data and articulated what the information meant. I had used Excel for personal banking information; however I was amazed with the data function and what it is capable of. For that reason it is my hope that our school can begin to use Excel with our ongoing classroom assessments and create useful charts that give feedback about students’ progress and consequently help us improve instruction.
If I were to tell myself anything it would be to calm down. When I first read the syllabus I was truly overwhelmed and would not have believed I would have any understanding of research, let alone conduct my own research project. The course was broken down into manageable parts and that made a tremendous difference in our understanding of introductory statistics and how to interpret it. These exercises were essential in helping me articulate the findings of my own research. The professors did an excellent job allowing each part of the course build on the next until we finally had a completed research project.