A Guide to Basic Statistics for Educational Research

Clinician-educators often need to produce scholarship for academic promotion. While some programs exist to help with faculty development skills, few provide adequate statistical training to help educators evaluate their work.

From January 2020 through January 2021, faculty at three academic centers attended one of five in-person or virtual seminars with dedicated statistical training for medical education interventions. These 90-minute seminars included a 45-minute PowerPoint presentation of common statistical tests used for educational interventions followed by small breakout groups to help attendees work on additional practice examples. After each seminar, surveys were distributed in person or virtually to obtain feedback.

Forty-three faculty attended the five seminars, with a range of surgical and nonsurgical specialties represented. Of these attendees, 38 (88%) completed session evaluations. The majority of respondents (n = 34, 90%) rated the session as extremely useful in helping them know how to use statistics in their scholarly work. Most participants agreed or strongly agreed they had adequate time to practice skills (n = 30, 79%). Self-rated confidence in using statistics was significantly higher after the session compared to before (3.00 post vs. 1.97 pre, p < .0001). Most participants (n = 32, 84%) rated the session as excellent and the small-group practice as most useful (n = 16, 42%), but many (n = 26, 69%) wanted more skills practice.

This intervention shows that dedicated training on biostatistics used in educational interventions can help clinician-educators improve self-rated confidence and knowledge in choosing statistical tests in educational scholarship.