Orheruata Matilda Uvie (Ph.D) and Atuma Ufuomaoghene
Assessment of the Use of Appropriate Statistical Techniques in Undergraduate
Educational Research Projects in the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
The study investigated the appropriateness of statistical techniques used in undergraduate educational research projects in the University of Benin, Edo State. The study specifically determined the popular statistical tools employed by undergraduate researchers in project writing, the proportion of projects having appropriate statistical techniques usage, and whether the observed proportion of appropriate statistical techniques is different from what is expected by chance. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The study employed a descriptive design of a documentary approach. The study population was 1,383 undergraduate research project copies submitted in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science/Art Education degree in the 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic sessions in the Faculty of Education, University of Benin library. The sample size was 270 undergraduate projects, comprising 90 projects for each of the three academic sessions selected through a systematic sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was a statistical tool checklist compiled by the researchers from the literature on the principles and assumptions of statistical tools. It was titled “Statistical Tools Checklist for Appropriate Utilization for Data Analysis (STOCAUDA)”. Three experts in Measurement and Evaluation validated the instrument. It was accepted as a valid statistical tool checklist. Data collected were analysed using simple proportion, percentages and simple ranking to answer research questions, while a one-sample binomial test of equal probabilities was used to test the hypothesis at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study revealed that descriptive statistics is the popular statistical tool employed in project writing by undergraduate researchers. The level of appropriateness of statistical techniques usage by the undergraduate researchers in the three academic sessions was 0.64% in 2020/2021, 0.79% in 2021/2022, and 0.84% in 2022/2023. It also reveals that the proportion of appropriate usage of statistical tools in undergraduate educational research projects is significantly different across 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic sessions. It was recommended that undergraduate researchers should utilise inferential statistical techniques in addition to descriptive statistics to make inferences about real-world data. Also, project supervisors should improve on undergraduates’ research project supervision efforts by being conversant with appropriate statistical tools suitable for a particular study.
Keywords: Appropriateness of statistical techniques, Undergraduates in the University of Benin, students, Educational research projects
Orheruata Matilda Uvie (Ph.D) and Atuma Ufuomaoghene
Assessment of the Use of Appropriate Statistical Techniques in Undergraduate Educational Research Projects in the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria
The study investigated the appropriateness of statistical techniques used in undergraduate educational research projects in the University of Benin, Edo State. The study specifically determined the popular statistical tools employed by undergraduate researchers in project writing, the proportion of projects having appropriate statistical techniques usage, and whether the observed proportion of appropriate statistical techniques is different from what is expected by chance. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The study employed a descriptive design of a documentary approach. The study population was 1,383 undergraduate research project copies submitted in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science/Art Education degree in the 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic sessions in the Faculty of Education, University of Benin library. The sample size was 270 undergraduate projects, comprising 90 projects for each of the three academic sessions selected through a systematic sampling technique. The instrument used for data collection was a statistical tool checklist compiled by the researchers from the literature on the principles and assumptions of statistical tools. It was titled “Statistical Tools Checklist for Appropriate Utilization for Data Analysis (STOCAUDA)”. Three experts in Measurement and Evaluation validated the instrument. It was accepted as a valid statistical tool checklist. Data collected were analysed using simple proportion, percentages and simple ranking to answer research questions, while a one-sample binomial test of equal probabilities was used to test the hypothesis at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings from the study revealed that descriptive statistics is the popular statistical tool employed in project writing by undergraduate researchers. The level of appropriateness of statistical techniques usage by the undergraduate researchers in the three academic sessions was 0.64% in 2020/2021, 0.79% in 2021/2022, and 0.84% in 2022/2023. It also reveals that the proportion of appropriate usage of statistical tools in undergraduate educational research projects is significantly different across 2020/2021, 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 academic sessions. It was recommended that undergraduate researchers should utilise inferential statistical techniques in addition to descriptive statistics to make inferences about real-world data. Also, project supervisors should improve on undergraduates’ research project supervision efforts by being conversant with appropriate statistical tools suitable for a particular study. Keywords: Appropriateness of statistical techniques, Undergraduates in the University of Benin, students, Educational research projects