Betty is a PhD student in a Doctorate of Education program. When I first met Betty she was working on her dissertation proposal and statistical analysis. Her first words to me were ‘I am not well-versed on statistics’. I assured her that by the end of the process she will be speaking the language.  She was like ‘you rock’! We did a virtual ‘high five’ and went to work.

As time wore on,  I made some observations. I noticed that she was the type of student that studied the facts in great detail. And she was meticulous in the way she organized her research. Everything was color-coded and orderly. She was actively vested in understanding the research process and statistical analysis. She was an active learner and over time she started to speak the language of statistics. Our conversations topics progressed from bar charts to in-depth opinions on factorial analysis seemingly overnight. Because she was vigilant in studying the facts. Betty is a natural born researcher.

Through Betty’s experience I can appreciate the effort it takes to truly understand what you are reading. There are stumbling blocks along the way. But if you question EVERYTHING and maintain a particular order of learning- you too can think and talk critically about your statistics. It sounds crazy but I have seen it happen numerous times. It is possible. The miracle does happen.

-Moore to follow-Amy