PRACTICAL STATISTICAL PACKAGE FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES (SPSS) TRAINING AND RESEARCH COMPETENCE AMONG STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI (LOWER KABETE CAMPUS)
Keywords:
SPSS, Practical Training, Research Competence, StudentsAbstract
Purpose: The purpose of the paper is to assess the effectiveness of the practical SPSS training on students' research competency among undergraduate and postgraduate students at the University of Nairobi, Lower Kabete Campus.
Methodology: A causal research design was used to establish the relationship between practical SPSS training and research competence of students. The target population was 160 students and a census was adopted. A questionnaire was administered at the end of the training to capture the pre and post training experience and test the effectiveness of the training. The analysis of the data was conducted through descriptive and inferential statistics. In particular, frequencies, means, standard deviations and paired t-test were used.
Results: The post training evaluation results reveal that majority of the respondents had low knowledge in data entry, descriptive statistics, regression and correlation analysis, parametric and non-parametric analysis, and journal article extraction and publication. Results also reveal that the level of knowledge significantly increased after the training. This is supported by the paired t-tests conducted on each aspect of training.
Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy and Practice: It was recommended to the campus management that frequent trainings should be organized at the convenience of the campus. It was suggested that university should consider supporting the training financially or the students to be requested to pay a token fee to make the training sustainable. Other financing approaches to enhance sustainability included having the consultant seeking funding from the National Research Fund. It was suggested that the training be made compulsory for all students undertaking Business Research Methods and points to accrue once they attend the training. The results were useful in theory building as they validated the efficacy of practical training pedagogical approaches.
Downloads
References
Doyle, D. A. (2017). Ugh"¦Statistics! College Students' Attitudes and Perceptions Toward Statistics. Honors in the Major Theses. 165.
Haughton, J., & Kelly, A. (2015). Student performance in an introductory business statistics course: Does delivery mode matter?. Journal of Education for Business, 90(1), 31-43. doi:10.1080/08832323.2014.968518
Jatnika, R. (2015). The effect of SPSS course to students attitudes toward statistics and achievement in statistics. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 5(11), 818.
Kimani, J.G & Simba, F. (2017). Effect of Practical SPSS Training on Students' Research
Competence; A Survey of Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology Mombasa Campus Postgraduate Students. African Journal of Education and Practice. Vol.2 (2) No.1, pp 1 - 15.
Kimani, J.G., Guyo, W., Rotich, G. (2017). Improving Research Competence Through Practical SPSS Training among Postgraduate Students in Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) CBD Campus. Journal of Education and Practice.Vol.1(1) pp 19-34
Kimani, J.G., Waititu, A., Iravo, M. (2017). Linking Practical SPSS Training to Research Competence Among Postgraduate Students at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), Westland's Campus. American Journal of Education and Practice. Vol.2(1) pp 43 - 56
Lester, D. (2016). Predicting success in psychological statistics courses. Psychological Reports, 118(3), 772-777. doi:10.1177/0033294116647687
Ogolla, K. & Kimani, J.G. (2016). Bridging the Relevance Gap between Thematic Trends and Industry Relevance of Master of Business Administration Projects: The Double Helix of University - Industry Relation. DBA Africa Management Review. Vol 6 (4, 6) pp 11-32.
Schau, C., Dauphinee, T. L., Del Vecchio, A., & Stevens, J. J. (2003). Survey of attitudes toward statistics. Commissioned reviews on, 250, 8984901.
Sheikh, N. (2013). Learning: Combination of Practical & Theoretical Knowledge. Retrieved from http://scholarship-positions.com/blog/learning-combination-practical-theoretical-knowledge/201309/
Wellman, B. (1998). Doing it ourselves: The SPSS manual as sociology's most influential recent book. Required Reading: Sociology's Most Influential Books, D. Clawson Ed., University of Massachusetts Press, pp. 71-78.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
