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Abstract

The purpose of this research is to assess interdisciplinary agreement about the content of an introductory course in statistics and research methods. We compiled a set of methodological and statistical topics from relevant research, introductory textbooks, and course descriptions. Eighteen professors in the natural sciences, social sciences, and education assessed the importance of these topics for a hypothetical introductory statistics and research methods course. Results indicate agreement across disciplines on the relative importance of 97% of the statistical topics, with 75% of these topics deemed to be important. In contrast, there is agreement on the relative importance of only 48% of the research methods topics. The results are useful in the evaluation of existing statistics courses and texts. In addition, the data provide support for interdisciplinary introductory statistics instruction but also raise questions regarding the apparent discipline-specific nature of instruction in methodology.

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Essential Topics in Introductory Statistics and Methodology Courses

Abstract

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