Monday, June 9th, 20255:00 pm – 6:00 pm ET
Presented by: Nicola Sochacka, Kelly Findley
Abstract
This is the second webinar in a series designed for a broad audience of statistics and data science education researchers: young scholars beginning their research journeys, scholars from other disciplines interested in transitioning to statistics and data science education research, and existing statistics and data science researchers looking for new directions for their work.
This session will focus on qualitative research: a family of "small n" research approaches that provide deep insights into human experience. An initial talk will provide an overview of qualitative research, followed by a discussant who will respond and add unique perspectives from the statistics education community. After the formal presentation and discussant contributions, there will be time for audience questions and related discussion.
For reference, the prior webinars in this series are:
What is Scholarship and Research in Statistics and Data Science Education?
This webinar series is co-organized by CAUSE Research, the RSS Teaching Section, and Researchers of Statistics Education (RoSE) Network.
Speaker Bio (Nicola Sochacka)
Dr. Nicola (Nicki) Sochacka co-directs the ProQual Institute for Interpretive Research Methods, which builds capacity for high-quality qualitative and mixed methods research in STEM education. Drawing on the strengths STEM scholars bring to educational research—content expertise, teaching experience, and a drive for positive change—Nicki helps researchers design strategic, well-aligned studies through ProQual’s 9-week online course. This novel, person-centered program empowers participants to make informed decisions at every stage of the research process. Prior to founding the ProQual Institute, Nicki was Associate Director for Research Initiation at the Engineering Education Transformations Institute (EETI) at the University of Georgia. Supported by over $3.5M in NSF funding, her research explored empathy in engineering, the role of shame in identity development, arts-STEM integration, and innovative approaches to interpretive research. She is an experienced mentor, writing coach, and advisor who thrives on helping scholars design, publish, and propagate meaningful interpretive work.
Discussant Bio (Kelly Findley)
Kelly is a Teaching Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He earned a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Florida State University, focusing his dissertation on the disciplinary perspectives and experiences of graduate teaching assistants in statistics. Kelly primarily conducts qualitative research that seeks to capture rich examples of student thinking. He aims to create work that builds theory regarding both students' intuition about statistical concepts and students’ perspectives of the broader discipline.