Evaluation Plan for EDRS 811 Quantitative Methods
Evaluation Goals: The goal of this evaluation is to assess the needs and attitudes of current PhD
in Education students towards EDRS 811. There are two main goals:
1. To describe the attitudes of students prior to and after completing EDRS 811 and;
2. To examine any changes in the attitudes of students across time
Background and Description of EDRS 811: EDRS 811: Quantitative Methods in Education is
a course that focuses on the statistical procedures of analyzing quantitative data related to
education. This course trains students how to:
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select appropriate procedures that align with research questions
analyze data through SPSS
interpret results
evaluate the reliability/validity of research
Clients/Stakeholders: Anastasia Kistantas and Dimiter Dimitrov.
Evaluation Questions
Following a meeting with Dr. Anastasia Kitsantas and Dr. Dimiter Dimitrov, the following three
program evaluation questions were developed:
1. What are student attitudes prior to beginning EDRS 811 in terms of their math anxiety,
attitudes towards statistics, and values?
2. What are student attitudes after completing EDRS 811 in term so their math anxiety,
attitudes towards statistics, and values?
3. How do students’ math anxiety, attitudes towards statistics, and values change from the
beginning to the completion of EDRS 811?
Evaluation Method
This format of this evaluation will be a context evaluation, where the main goal is to describe
and identify the needs of the population (e.g., students).
Evaluation Design
The design of this program evaluation will be cross-sectional, in that students who have yet to
take the course will be surveyed while simultaneously assessing the needs of students during and
after course completion. To meet these program evaluation questions, and taking into
consideration the background of both Dr. Anastasia Kitsantas and Dr. Dimiter Dimitrov, a survey
approach to data collection will be taken.
Evaluation Question
Specific Attitude Measured:
Measure Used
Analysis Plan
How anxious do students
feel about EDRS 811?
Math Anxiety: Math Anxiety
Scale
Descriptive Statistics: Means
and Standard Deviations
What are student attitudes
towards EDRS 811?
Math Attitudes: Student
Attitudes Toward Statistics
Scale
Descriptive Statistics: Means
and Standard Deviations
How much do students
value the content learned in
EDRS 811?
Task Value: Student
Attitudes Toward Statistics
Scale
Descriptive Statistics: Means
and Standard Deviations
How do students’ math
anxiety, attitudes towards
statistics, and values
change from the beginning
to the completion of EDRS
811?
Math Anxiety Scale; Math
Attitude Scale
T-tests/One-Way ANOVA
Timeline:
Upload survey onto Mason WebSurvey
First email to recruit student participants
Second reminder email to recruit student participants
April 17, 2010
April 19, 2010
April 26, 2010
Clean and analyze data
Submit final evaluation report
April 28, 2010
May 6, 2010
Recruitment: Students will be recruited online through email. The program manager for the
Ph.D. in Education office (Joan Stahl) will provide the emails of students for me to send
electronic surveys through GMU’s online survey software.
Students who are enrolled in Ways of Knowing will be recruited as students who have yet to take
EDRS 811. Students who have completed Portfolio Review II will be considered as post-EDRS
811 students. These emails will be provided by Joan Stahl.
To confirm the EDRS 811 completion status of students, an additional question on the survey
will ask if students have yet to, are currently enrolled in, or have already completed EDRS 811.
Measures Used:
1. Student Attitudes Towards Statistics Scale (SATS; 36 items).
Subscales Include:
a) Affect: Students' feelings about statistics
b) Cognitive Competence: Students' perceptions about their cognitive competence to
apply and learn statistics.
c) Value: Students' perception about the usefulness, relevance, and worth of statistics in
their profession.
d) Difficulty: Students' perceptions about the difficulty of statistics.
e) Interest: Students' interest in statistics.
f) Effort: Amount of effort student plan to expend to learn statistics.
*See attachment for the scales.
2. Abbreviated Math Anxiety Scale (AMAS; 9 items).
Subscales Include:
a) Learning Math Anxiety
b) Math Evaluation Anxiety
The SATS and AMAS will be adapted for students who have yet to take EDRS 811. Specifically,
items such as: “I plan to complete all of my statistics assignments” will be adapted for students
who have already taken EDRS 811 to “I had completed all of my statistics assignments”.
Therefore, a total of two surveys will be created, a pre-811 survey and a post-811 survey.
3. Demographic Information
Questions Include:
1. Age
2. Gender
3. Ethnic background
4. Undergraduate Degree (e.g., History, Biology)
5. Program
6. Time since last math course
7. Please indicate your current status:
a. Have yet to complete EDRS811
b. Currently enrolled in EDRS 811
c. Have completed EDRS 811
i. How long has it been since you have completed EDRS 811? ________