Teaching Note—Preparing Doctoral Students to Confront the Grand Challenges: Strengthening Baseline Statistical Skills

ABSTRACT

We describe a statistical seminar designed to provide a common foundation in core statistical concepts among all students as they enter a social work PhD program. Student feedback surveys assessed students’ statistics preparation prior to entering the program, and pre- and posttests were compared for increases in statistical knowledge. Nearly half (42.1%) reported no prior statistics training, and exposure to IBM SPSS Statistics software was low (M=1.54 out of 5, SD=1.38). Students showed significant gains in posttest knowledge. Findings suggest substantial variability in students’ statistical preparedness, and for many, knowledge of basic concepts is rudimentary. Such a seminar may allow programs to begin with more advanced quantitative course work and move to increasingly more complex topics over time (e.g., multilevel modeling).

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Notes on contributors

Courtney Cronley

Courtney Cronley is associate professor at The University of Tennessee, Beverly Black is professor at University of Texas at Arlington, and Michael Killian is assistant professor at Florida State University.