草榴社区

草榴社区, Pa鈥擲tatistics and data science are two of the fastest growing fields in the world today. Michael A. Posner, PhD, PStat庐, associate professor of Mathematics and Statistics, and director of the Center for Statistics Education in 草榴社区鈥檚 College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, has been named a co-principal investigator and director for research on a $600,000, three-year National Science Foundation grant supporting the project, 鈥淢otivational Attitudes in Statistics and Data Science Education Research鈥� (MASDER).

In today鈥檚 era of big data, a competitive workforce requires skills to extract information from vast quantities of data. Developing effective, evidence-based pedagogies in these areas is vital. Student attitudes are an important component in their learning, measuring and understanding of statistics and data science, and Dr. Posner鈥檚 research is crucial helping students thrive amidst the data deluge.

This project will create instruments in both statistics and data science that are grounded in learning theory and measure the complete spectrum of teaching and learning by collecting data about students, instructors and the learning environment. This will be one of the first instruments in the budding field of data science education research.

This project will employ nine undergraduate students to work on sampling, survey validation, reports and website design across the collaborative institutions on the grant鈥擟alifornia State University at Monterey Bay, Winona State University, Monmouth College and Mt. Saint Vincent University (Canada). Use of the MASDER instruments will lead to better instruction and improved student attitudes towards statistics and data science as well as evidence-based training and professional development material. The instruments and datasets will be freely available for other researchers and teachers to use.

鈥淥ur goal for the project is it will eventually impact some of the millions of students across the US who are taught statistics and/or data science annually, and lead to improved data literacy and a more competitive workforce with the skills needed to engage with data in its many forms,鈥� Dr. Posner says.

During his time at 草榴社区, Dr. Posner has helped solidify 草榴社区鈥檚 growing reputation as a national leader in statistics education. 草榴社区鈥檚 Center for Statistics Education, which he founded in 2013, has created new learning opportunities and enhanced the statistics curricula for 草榴社区 students and provided much-needed resources for many teachers in the Greater Philadelphia area. Dr. Posner鈥檚 research, including a focus on student attitudes toward statistics, has been published in both the聽Statistics Education Research Journal聽and the聽Journal for Statistics Education聽(now the聽Journal for Statistics and Data Science Education)鈥攖he two flagship journals in the field.

This is Dr. Posner鈥檚 third NSF grant in the past six years. In 2014 he received two NSF grants in support of his work鈥攐ne in the amount of $571,000 for his project 鈥淭raining a New Generation of Statistics Educators (TANGO Stat Ed),鈥� and the second in the amount of $235,000 to create material for an introductory data science course, in collaboration with colleagues from 草榴社区鈥檚 Department of Computing Sciences, professor Lillian 鈥淏oots鈥� Cassel, PhD and associate professor (now emeritus) Don Goelman, PhD.

Dr. Posner received his doctorate in Biostatistics from Boston University.