Quantitative analysis within methodological

approachesin education

Mike Blamiresmb1@canterbury.ac.uk

Faculty of Education

Relationships of Respect and Challenge

Inquiry Habit of MindUsing Relevant Data

Evidence-informed Conversations

Evidence-Informed Conversations about Data

Earl and Timperley (2000)

Which QTS std does this apply to?

“Hook-ups shift electrical energy from the survival centres in the hindbrain to the reasoning centres in the midbrain and neocortex, thus activating hemispheric integration … the tongue pressing into the roof of the mouth stimulates the limbic system for emotional processing in concert with more refined reasoning in the frontal lobes”

Learning is facilitated when teachers encourage risk-taking, tolerate mistakes and provide feedback that allows learners to monitor progress.

That is‘learning oriented’ rather than ‘performance oriented’ cultures

(Dweck, 1989)

Risk Challenge & Feedback

Teacher Inquiry and Knowledge Building Cycle

Timperley, H. (2009)

Formative assessment

Many teachers’ previous training and approaches to teaching practice did not require them to interpret and use these kinds of data, because assessment information was about labelling and categorising students, and not for guiding and directing teaching

How have we contributed to existing student outcomes?

What do we already know that we can use to promote improved outcomes for students?

What do we need to learn to do to promote these outcomes?

What sources of evidence or knowledge can we utilise?

Two interrelated orientations to research

In simple terms we can think of two approaches to investigations in educational research: qualitative and quantitative. In the former we use words to describe the outcomes and in the latter we use numbers. Berry, J. & Hohmann (2005)

Quantitative approaches

• Standardised tests• Criterion references test• Surveys• Measurements, data collection and

analysis• Experimental and quasi experimental

methods

Shall I slice the pizza into four or eight pieces?

M ake it four ! I could never eat eight !

Shall I slice the pizza into four or eight pieces?

M ake it four ! I could never eat eight !

How useful is quantitative data alone ?

(www.docs.google.com – Forms within spreadsheets)

(www.docs.google.com – Forms within spreadsheets)

Qualitative approaches

• Action research (sometimes)• Biography• Interviews• Ethnography• Use of documentary evidence

(Hermeneutics)

How useful is qualitative evidence?• It (Factory Act, 1844) provides nothing more than that

the children shall on certain days of the week, and for a certain number of hours (three in each day) be enclosed within the four walls of a place called a school and that the employer of the child shall receive weekly a certificate to that effect signed by a person designated by the subscriber as a school master or schoolmistress. ‘ On one occasion, on visiting a place called a school, from which certificates of attendance had issued I was so struck by the ignorance of the master that I said to him; “Pray sir, can you read?” His reply was “Aye summat!”: as a justification of his right to grant certificates, he added “At any rate I am before my scholars”.

• Leonard Horner in Reports of the Inspectors of Factories 30th April 1837 p17 cited in Marx, K. Das Kapital (1873)

Why Mixed Methods? All quantitative data is based upon

qualitative judgments; and all qualitative data can be described and manipulated numerically.

Peter Tymms: Evidence Hierarchy

New Evidence Centres for EducationSee a short article on these centres on the

TTRBhttp://www.ttrb3.org.uk/?p=8885

• This follows on from the Goldacre report on

BUILDING EVIDENCE INTO EDUCATIONhttp://media.education.gov.uk/assets/files/pdf/b/ben%20goldacre%20paper.pdf

How good are the numbers?What practice in your school do you think has the strongest evidence base and why?

What practice in your school do you think has the weakest evidence base and why?

Which area of practice are you unsure of in terms of its evidence? Where could you look for this?

VariablesA variable is any entity that can take on different

values.the independent variable is what you (or

nature) manipulates -- a treatment or program or cause.

The dependent variable is what is affected by the independent variable -- your effects or outcomes. For example, if you are studying the effects of a new educational program on student achievement, the program is the independent variable and your measures of achievement are the dependent ones.

What are the most important variables to consider in education?

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Possible Measurement

Socio Economic Status

Academic Achievement

?

Social Disadvantage Degree of exclusion and difficulty encountered in education

Numbers of children registered as having SEN or a statement of SEN

Ethnicity ? Explained and unexplained absences recorded according to ethnicity

Gender Engagement with Physics

% take up of GCSE and A Level Physics

School ethos and policy on Behaviour

?

Number of short term and permanent exclusions

Testing Theory

Units of analysis• Individuals • Classes• Schools• Artefacts (programmes, books, photos,

newspapers) • Geographical units (town, census tract,

state) • Social interactions (dyadic relations,

divorces, arrests)

Levels of the measurement• Stevens, 1946

measure of central tendency

Geometric Mean

Arithmetic Mean

Median

Mode

Gives examples of different levels of data

Level of Data ExampleRatio: has a absolute zero

Eg Height, Age and Weight

Interval: distance between measures

Where means mean something eg Date & time

Ordinal: attribute can be ordered

Eg social class, grade and education level, levels of agreement

Nominal: attribute can be named

Eg Gender, Colours, Country,

Standard Deviation

• is a widely used measurement of variability or diversity used in statistics and probability theory. It shows how much variation or "dispersion" there is from the average (mean, or expected value). A low standard deviation indicates that the data points tend to be very close to the mean, whereas high standard deviation indicates that the data are spread out over a large range of values.

• Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/standard-deviation#ixzz1IqwFC900

Same mean different SD

Example of two sample populations with the same mean and different standard deviations. Red population has mean 100 and SD 10; blue population has mean 100 and SD 50.

Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/standard-deviation#ixzz1Iqzf9FSm

Two Research Fallacies•The ecological fallacy occurs when you make conclusions about individuals based only on analyses of group data•An exception fallacy is sort of the reverse of the ecological fallacy. It occurs when you reach a group conclusion on the basis of exceptional cases.

ValidityValidity to refers to the quality of various conclusions you might reach based on a research project. Conclusion Validity: In this study, is there a relationship between the two variables?

Internal Validity: Assuming that there is a relationship in this study, is the relationship a causal one?

Construct Validity: Assuming that there is a causal relationship in this study, can we claim that the program reflected well our construct of the program and that our measure reflected well our idea of the construct of the measure?

External Validity: Assuming that there is a causal relationship in this study between the constructs of the cause and the effect, can we generalize this effect to other persons, places or times?

Reliabilityhas to do with the quality of measurement. In its everyday sense, reliability is the "consistency" or "repeatability" of your measures. •Inter-Rater or Inter-Observer ReliabilityUsed to assess the degree to which different raters/observers give consistent estimates of the same phenomenon. •Test-Retest ReliabilityUsed to assess the consistency of a measure from one time to another. •Parallel-Forms ReliabilityUsed to assess the consistency of the results of two tests constructed in the same way from the same content domain. •Internal Consistency ReliabilityUsed to assess the consistency of results across items within a test.

Challenge AA) You have been asked to develop a means

of measuring progression in the development of pupil creativity that can be used across subject areas.

How would you measure it and how would you demonstrate that learners were developing creativity?

Challenge BYou are a consultant to the Belizean government who wish to improve the quality of provision for pupils with disabilities in mainstream schools who are supported by specialist advisory teachers.

What would you do and how would you prove it was effective?

Questions & Answers• Invite questions from the audience

references• In L. Earl and H. Timperley (ed.)

Professional Learning Conversations: Challenges in Using Evidence for Improvement. London, Springer Academic Publishers, 121-126, 2008.

• Dweck, C. S. (1989). Motivation. In A. Lesgold and R. Glaser (Ed.), Foundations for a Psychology of Education (pp. 87-136). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

What are the most important variables to consider in education?

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Possible Measurement

Socio Economic Status

Academic Achievement

Exam results ? University Course? Career destination

Social Disadvantage Degree of exclusion and difficulty encountered in education

Numbers of children registered as having SEN or a statement of SEN

Ethnicity Degree of participation in education

Explained and unexplained absences recorded according to ethnicity

Gender Engagement with Physics

% take up of GCSE and A Level Physics

School ethos and policy on Behaviour

The success of the behaviour policy – the quality of behaviour

Number of short term and permanent exclusions

ResourcesTrochim, W.M.K (2006) Social Research Methodshttp://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/

index.php Berr, J. & Hohmann , U. (2005)Quantitative

Methods in Education Research Centre for Teaching Mathematics, University of Plymouth

http://www.edu.plymouth.ac.uk/resined/Quantitative/quanthme.htm#A.%20%20%20%20INTRODUCTION

The TTRB has a large range of reviews on evidence in education:

www.ttrb3.org.uk