Dani Anita, Al Quraan Elaine
Adjunct Faculty Manipal at Global Next University Malaysia, Aneet Project Management, Canada.
Consultant of Leadership and Management in Education at the Ministry of Education, United Arab Emirates.
Heliyon. 2023 Sep 29;9(10):e20423. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20423. eCollection 2023 Oct.
In the information society, there is a vast amount of data that needs to be analyzed quantitatively. The ability to perform quantitative analysis based on statistical thinking and data mining, is becoming extremely important. It is important that research students develop positive attitude towards both qualitative and quantitative research approaches. But many research students try to avoid applying quantitative methods in their research and prefer to rely on qualitative research approach due to lack of interest and confidence in statistical skills. This research aims to explore if research students' choice of research approach is affected by their attitude towards Statistics. 81 research students from three different universities participated in a survey in which there was one open ended question. Quantitative data from the survey was analyzed by using cluster analysis and independent sample -test was applied to examine differences in the attitudes of masters and doctoral research students. Other data analysis methods, such as cross-tabular analysis, chi-square and ANOVA tests were also applied. Responses to open ended question were analyzed qualitatively by detecting the themes, such as, focus on technique, data or meaning. This study found that students pursuing postgraduate degrees in social science streams are not very keen on using a quantitative research approach. Masters students' attitudes towards statistics are different than the doctoral students. Findings of our research indicate that the majority of students who think that statistics is only about numeric methods, prefer to go away from it and choose a qualitative approach. Based on the findings, recommendations for changes in curriculum are presented.
在信息社会中，有大量数据需要进行定量分析。基于统计思维和数据挖掘进行定量分析的能力正变得极其重要。研究型学生培养对定性和定量研究方法的积极态度很重要。但许多研究型学生由于对统计技能缺乏兴趣和信心，在研究中试图避免应用定量方法，而更倾向于依赖定性研究方法。本研究旨在探讨研究型学生对研究方法的选择是否受其对统计学态度的影响。来自三所不同大学的81名研究型学生参与了一项调查，其中有一个开放式问题。通过聚类分析对调查中的定量数据进行分析，并应用独立样本t检验来检验硕士和博士研究生在态度上的差异。还应用了其他数据分析方法，如交叉表分析、卡方检验和方差分析。通过检测诸如对技术、数据或意义的关注等主题，对开放式问题的回答进行定性分析。本研究发现，社会科学领域攻读研究生学位的学生不太热衷于使用定量研究方法。硕士研究生对统计学的态度与博士研究生不同。我们的研究结果表明，大多数认为统计学只是关于数值方法的学生，倾向于远离它并选择定性方法。基于这些发现，提出了课程改革的建议。
