Using Statistics and Government Publications in Education - Essay Example

Reflection Essay The contents and ideas in this course relate to me with regards to reading article journals, using statistics and government publications. I have significantly developed my ability to critically evaluate journal articles, using and interpreting statistics in various writings such as government publications. My essay gives a reflection on reading journal articles, using statistics and using government publications. Reading and understanding journal articles has been a great challenge for me since way back. I believe that knowledge in critical reading, conceptualization, and understanding of journal articles in various levels is essential to me as a learner. This skill is useful in my academics as one is required to understand given texts in order to respond to any quiz. Having read and understood “Children’s Perception of themselves as Learners Inside and Outside School”; a research paper in education written by Nidhi Singal and Mandy Swann, I now feel that my conceptualization of readings has greatly improved. In general, just like any other research paper, the journal article looked interestingly complicated as it called for critical analysis. The title itself was captivating leave alone the introduction part of it. Interpreting the statistical data table in it seemed challenging only to find out that the authors had already broken down everything for the reader. This explanatory study set out to investigate how group of children, who are identified as underachieving in school, constructed understandings of themselves as learners inside and outside school. As per the article, data were collected using semi-structured interviews and image based methods with the children. Interviews were also conducted with their parents and teachers. Use of semi-structured interviews triggered my curiosity to understand various research methods and where they can appropriately be used. I have always been confused with concepts in research methods and research tools or rather techniques. The research method used in this study helped me at least understand that there exist structured and none-structured interviews which I never knew before. It is proposed that this exploratory study will provide rich data which will help to develop deeper understandings of children’s learning. I must admit that this journal reading in particular clearly illustrated to me how to effectively use statistics to support your data. I have come to appreciate that in using statistics one needs to be aware of certain issues when including statistical data in his/her writing as this information is very informative to academic writing. From my understanding through this course activity I believe it helps in convincing the audience regarding the validity of the arguments made. In this case, data from http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Statistics/Browse/School-Education/TrendClassSizes about class size was used as our study material. Statistics has been described as being tricky due to the fact that a layman is not in a position to understand statistics in any greater depth while for those experienced in it, they know a lot about it. It has thus been found a challenge trying to balance between these two extremes. I have realized how important it is for one to master how to not only write using your own statistics but also using other people’s statistics (Dytham, 2011. p. 8). According to my understanding, a statistic can be defined as any number that is used to give a description about a given group of objects. I also understand that statistics can be categorized into descriptive statistics and inferential statistics (Ware & Brewer, 1999. p. 2). I believe there are several issues to be considered when including statistical data in your writing. The source of your data must be credible and relevant to second your argument. This will not only win the trust of your audience but also present you as a professional (Dytham, 2011. p. 15). Locating the right data or rather statistics for various writings was such a challenging task. Most of the data that seemed appropriate was however complex to analyze. These required that one has more than just basics in data analysis and interpretation skills. Most of the analyses required expertise and sometimes knowledge in some computer aided data analysis programs e.g. SPSS, STATA etc. This challenged me to consider taking lessons in data analysis. In the course of this unit study, I had an opportunity to look at several government publications. Initially I had a negative attitude towards such publications as I perceived them to be meant for higher level intellectuals and that they never concerned me. One such government publication in particular that interested me was the government publication on “School Transport” dated 21st August 2002. This was prepared by the Scottish Executive National Statistics. The publication is basically related to the results of the Scottish Executive Survey on education authority funded free school transport, 2001/2002. Having read this publication, I found out that the statistics in the publication were calculated using information from the annual survey of free school transport provided by education authorities, conducted in April 2002. As per the report, 146, 518 pupils received education authority funded transport to schools. This represented 19.7 per cent of all pupils in education authority schools. The publication has four tables that seemed complicated but after a careful review, the tables were self-explanatory. The publication was well illustrated with graphs. These tables and graphs were well explained by captions. From this I learned that a wide range of information is available in such publications and con be used by various individuals so as to come up with sound decisions on issues relating to the current social trends that affect our society at large. I now understand that it is from such case studies that the government comes up with various justifiable policies. It has dawned to me that statistics speak volumes provided data is well collected, analyzed, interpreted and presented. This government publication is a classic example of how data should be presented, as both those with statistical skills and those without can well interprets the data, given that they are well presented in tables and explained. This course study has challenged my writing skills especially those including statistics. References Dytham, C. (2011). Choosing and Using Statistics: A Biologist's Guide. New Yersey: John Wiley & Sons. Ware, M.E., & Brewer, C.L. (1999). Handbook for Teaching Statistics and Research Methods. (2nd ed.) London: Routledge. Read More