Standard V - Method 

Artifact Description:

In the course GREV510 Educational Statistics I (Fall 2020) with Dr. Rachael Hoffman, I applied quantitative research methodologies in the data analysis project to solve problems in STEM education and enhance instructional practice. One of the issues in STEM education gender difference in spatial ability that may cause females to have low learning performance in STEM courses. The data analysis project examined whether gender has an influence on spatial ability. The original data for the project was retrieved from a project called Spatial anxiety and spatial ability: Mediators of gender differences in math anxiety in the Open Science Framework (OSF). The data analysis project was composed of an introduction and literature review, methods, data analysis, results, and discussion.

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Reflection and Rationale:

In the course GREV510 Educational Statistics I (Fall 2020) with Dr. Rachael Hoffman, I was exposed to a great number of core concepts in quantitative research methodologies and a variety of statistical tests including t-tests. I learned to perform statistical analysis in the IBM SPSS software. While I was searching for educational data that can be used for the data analysis project, I came across a project called Spatial anxiety and spatial ability: Mediators of gender differences in math anxiety in the Open Science Framework (OSF). The research assistantship with Dr. Misook Heo enabled me to learn about her work in gender effect in spatial ability. Therefore, I decided to use the data from the project in OSF to investigate whether gender affects the spatial ability test scores. The study replicated the findings of the previous study that male participants had a better performance than female participants on the Mental rotation task scores (Parsons et al., 2004). The results of the data analysis project developed my awareness of the need to provide more assistance to female students in learning tasks that require spatial ability. As an educator and researcher, I look forward to applying research methodologies to solve more educational problems and to enhance my instructional practice in the future.

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Reference: 

Parsons, T. D., Larson, P., Kratz, K., Thiebaux, M., Bluestein, B., Buckwalter, J. G., & Rizzo, A. A. (2004). Sex differences in mental rotation and spatial rotation in a virtual environment. Neuropsychologia, 42, 555-562. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2003.08.014