Developing Capacity for Advanced Quantitative Methodology by Enhancing Learner Agency

心理学的研究人员和学生经常发现，量化方法很难，因为它依赖于一门不熟悉的语言(数学)，而且脱节，因为它被描述为一套无关的程序。无论是在本科阶段，还是在学习和职业生涯的后期阶段，统计学都是一个障碍。然而，量化方法是心理学中一个基本且不断发展的部分，提供成功的学习方法对学生和研究人员来说都是至关重要的。拟议的项目旨在研究申请人和拟议的第一位主管开发的一种学习定量方法的新方法可以获得的好处。这一新方法使用了专门编写的模拟软件，BrawStats专注于设计决策，使用图形交互界面提供即时结果，以支持高级量化学习。本项目将调查学习者代理作为改变结果的关键概念。最成功的学习者具有高度的自主性：他们独立、主动、在学习中做出决定，并对自己的能力有一定程度的自信(Mercer，2011；PersonalizeLearning，2015)。我们采用生态方法(Biesta和Tedder，2007)，强调以前的经验、现在的环境(社会和物质)和对未来进步的预期的共同作用，并将其应用于学习，特别是在数字环境中。自20世纪80年代以来，研究人员和开发人员采用建构主义和社会建构主义理论来解释使用数字技术时学习发生的方式(Ito 2010)。这些说法表明，(精心设计的)数字环境和资源可以提供“真实的”虚拟环境，学习者可以在其中解决问题并参与模拟现实世界活动的练习，特别是当数字环境允许围绕共同挑战进行参与式合作时。数字认知游戏的设计反映了专业职业中的任务，是电子学习如何成功应用于学习者代理发展的一个最好的例子。上下文：心理学和Beyond内部目前存在强烈的负面观点和对标准的担忧，最近发生的事件就证明了这一点，比如复制危机(OSF，2015)，报告称心理学研究的重复率很低，约40%。尽管这一比例被认为是由于科学严谨性差造成的，但同样真实的是，这一现象表明研究人员缺乏先进的技能和理解力。此外，最近的一项元分析公开了这样的发现：在28年的时间里发表的论文中，惊人的50%包含了数量统计上的不一致。虽然有许多研究人员对自己的能力充满信心，并认为复制危机并不像看起来那么灾难性，但从这篇论文中可以清楚地看出，存在着必须解决的困难。

Researchers and students in Psychology often find quantitative methodology difficult -disempowering because it relies on an unfamiliar language (maths), and disjointed because it ispresented as a set of unrelated procedures. Statistics is a hurdle both during time as anundergraduate and at later stages in studies and careers.However, quantitative methods are an essential and ever-evolving part of psychology, andproviding successful learning approaches is vital for both students and researchers. The proposedproject seeks to examine the benefits that can be gained from a new approach to learningquantitative methods developed by the applicant and proposed first supervisor. This newapproach uses purpose-written simulation software, BrawStats focused on design decisions, providing instantoutcomes using a graphical interactive interface to support advanced quantitative learning.This project will investigate learner agency as the key concept to changing outcomes. The mostsuccessful learners have 'high agency': they are independent, take initiatives and make decisionsin their learning, and have a degree of self-belief in their capabilities (Mercer, 2011; PersonalizeLearning, 2015). We adopt the ecological approach to agency (Biesta and Tedder, 2007) whichemphasises the joint roles of previous experience, present environment (social and physical) andexpectations of future progress, and apply it to learning, particularly within digital environments.Since the 1980s 'e-learning' and 'educational technology' researchers and developers haveadapted constructivist and social constructivist theories to account for the ways learning occurswhen using digital technologies (Ito 2010). These accounts suggest that (well-designed) digitalenvironments and resources can provide 'authentic' virtual contexts in which learners can solveproblems and take part in practices that simulate real-world activities, particularly when thesedigital environments enable participatory collaboration around shared challenges. The design of'digital epistemic games', which mirror the tasks found in professional occupations, is a primeexample of how e-learning has been successfully applied to the development of learner agency.Context:Strong negative views and a concern about standards currently exist within Psychology andbeyond, evidenced by recent events such as the replication crisis (OSF, 2015), which reported alow replication rate of ca. 40% for psychological studies. Although it is presumed that thispercentage is due to poor scientific rigour, it is equally true that the phenomenon demonstratesthe lack of advanced skills and understanding in researchers. Further, a recent meta-analysispublicised findings that a staggering 50% of papers published over a 28-year period containedquantitative statistical inconsistencies. While there are many researchers who are confident in their abilities and believe that the replicationcrisis is not quite as disastrous as it appears, it is clear from this paper that difficulties exist that must be addressed.