Module overview
This prepares you for the rest of the programme and so it is intended to support you in concurrent and subsequent modules by developing your skills with the statistical analyses that are used in quantitative approaches to research. You will develop your understanding of how to plan statistical analyses, how to carry out a bivariate statistical analysis, and how to use the results of a statistical analysis to advance scientific knowledge in a given area. You will use all of this knowledge to complete a partially written research report by carrying out a statistical analysis of a real-world educational dataset and then writing-up the results of this analysis in a critical manner.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Process and synthesise empirical and theoretical data, to create new syntheses and to present and justify a chosen position having drawn on relevant theoretical perspectives
- Organise and articulate opinions and arguments in speech, writing and other appropriate media using relevant specialist vocabulary
- Collect and apply numerical data appropriately, present data in a variety of formats including graphical and tabular and analyse and interpret both numeric and non-numeric data
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Use your knowledge and understanding critically to locate and justify a personal position in relation to education and psychology
- Identify and reflect critically across aspects of subject knowledge and their application in educational contexts and policies
- Adopt an objective approach, reflecting on your own and others' value systems
- Formulate and justify potential changes in practice
- Assimilate new principles and understandings as they relate to key areas in education and at the intersection of education and psychology
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- Diversity of learners and the complexities of the education process
- Underlying values and principles relevant to education and some of the core domains in the study of education and in the study of education and psychology.
- Essential grounding in the research process as it applies to education and, for joint honours students, as it applies to education and psychology
Syllabus
An introduction to:
- Foundational statistical concepts (measurement, levels of measurement, probability, averages, measures of dispersion; illustrative graphs).
- Inferential statistical reasoning (samples, populations, point estimates, interval estimates)
- Answering research questions by null hypothesis testing
- Seven bivariate inferential statistical tests (for research questions specifying differences between groups, differences over time, and associations between concepts)
- The SPSS software package
- Reporting the results of inferential statistical tests of null hypothesis in the formal of a written academic research report
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
You will be expected to engage in 'active' learning through participation in seminar groups; group and class discussion; posing and responding to questions. In addition, you will be expected to actively engage with on-line resources available on Blackboard or elsewhere.
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Teaching | 18 |
Independent Study | 122 |
Total study time | 140 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Field, A (2018). Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics.. London: Sage.
Williams, K. and Carroll, J. (2017). Referencing & Understanding Plagiarism. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Pears R. and Shields, G. (2019). Cite Them Right: The Essential Referencing Guide. London: Bloomsbury Academic.
Pallant, J (2020). SPSS survival manual: A step by step guide to data analysis using IBM SPSS. London: Routledge.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Coursework | 100% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Coursework | 100% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Coursework | 100% |