What are my thoughts and feelings about statistics? Why do you think you feel the way you do about statistics? What can we do as a class (or individuals) to appreciate statistics more fully? What is the connection of statistics to research and what is the connection of statistics to your work as a future social worker, if any?
I actually really enjoy numbers and statistics. I’ve always excelled in math classes but its not one of my career interests. I enjoy statistics because I watch a lot of sports and statistics make or break a player’s ability to remain a professional. I also play poker and trade stocks so statistics and percentages are crucial in those realms as well. I use statistics daily in reporting at my current occupation so its safe to say I spend a lot of time in this aspect of our course.
I think for others to appreciate statistics more fully, we should look at interesting studies and run the numbers for that study. I think the more interesting the topic the more that students will want to learn.
Statistics have a direct relationship to research as the numbers back up the opinion/research question. Statistics are the backbone of research when data is involved. Statistics are the basis for my current job as I look at data regarding all types of interventions, workflow processes, and agency-wide functions. In the future as a school social worker I will most likely look at the percentage of students having positive outcomes. I’ll develop my own measures if the school does not. Statistics show if what we’re doing is working or not, so they are very impactful in this field.
SWK512 