Applying Sociocultural Theory to Teaching Statistics for Doctoral Social Work Students

Abstract

This article describes the development of two doctoral-level multivariate statistics courses utilizing sociocultural theory, an integrative pedagogical framework. In the first course, the implementation of sociocultural theory helps to support the students through a rigorous introduction to statistics. The second course involves students developing and testing their own hypotheses on secondary data sets, writing conference abstracts, and presenting at a mock conference. Quantitative and qualitative data from student feedback highlight the impact of this course, and findings from a short survey of doctoral programs suggest the widespread need for an effective approach to teaching doctoral-level statistics. The course model presented can be easily implemented in other doctoral programs of social work.

KEYWORDS:

• doctoral education
• statistics
• teaching

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We gratefully acknowledge Dr. Alex Gitterman, Director of the doctoral program, for supporting this innovative teaching methodology.