Title: R Programming for Senior High School Quantitative Research: Its
Influence on Students’ Data Analysis Performance and Anxiety
Authors: Gernel Lumacad; Danica Antiquina; and Alysha Jane Genson
Strand: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics
Submission
January 10, 2025
Dat:
General Objective of the Study
This study aims to explore the potential and effectiveness of R programming in
improving students’ data analysis performance and reducing statistical anxiety, specifically in the
quantitative research subject.
Research Questions
1. What is the students’ data analysis performance during pre-test and post-test?
2. What is the students’ level of statistical anxiety during pre-test and post-test?
3. Does R programming have a significant effect on improving students’ data analysis
performance and reducing their statistical anxiety?
4. What were the students’ experiences in the use of R programming?
Hypothesis (if there is any)
H0: R programming has no significant effect in improving students’ data analysis
performance and in reducing their statistical anxiety.
Research Design
This study uses a pre-test post-test quasi-experimental research design. Here, the
intervention (R programming) is introduced to the experimental group while the control group
utilizes the traditional manual computation for data analysis.
Research Locale
The study is conducted at a local private senior high school in the Philippines.
Research Participants and Sampling
Participants of the study are two intact sections of the Grade 12 Science, Technology,
Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) strand, who were currently taking their Practical
Research 2 subject (Quantitative Research). One section is assigned as the control group while
the other section is assigned as the experimental group. The assignment of the two sections to
which group they belong is randomly chosen since their mean pre-test scores for the data
analysis performance test and the statistical anxiety test do not differ. This implied that both
sections were at the same level of performance and anxiety, before the intervention was
implemented.
Research Instruments
There are three instruments used in this study. The first instrument used is the researcher-
made 20-item multiple choice data analysis performance test. This instruments aims to determine
the students’ data analysis performance. To ensure the validity of this instrument, it is supported
with a Table of Specification (TOS), underwent with an item analysis and face validity. The
second instrument used in this study is the Statistical Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS) which is
adapted from Chew, Dillon, & Swinbourne (2018). This instrument aims to determine students’
level of statistical anxiety in doing data analysis. The third instrument used in this study is a
researcher-made interview guide question that will ask students’ learning experiences in the use
of R programming for data analysis.
Data Gathering Procedure
The data gathering procedure is composed of three phases: the pre-test, post-test, and the
focus group discussion. In the first phase, a pre-test is conducted to the two intact sections. The
data analysis performance test and the statistical anxiety rating scale is administered. The
experimental group and the control group is defined right after analyzing the pre-test scores. A
week after the pre-test, the intervention period has started. For the experimental group, the R
programming language is introduced for data analysis activities, while the control group uses the
traditional method. During the intervention period, students in the experimental group used R
programming in conducting data analysis activities. Some of these activities include descriptive
analysis of the data; conducting hypothesis testing such as t-test; one-way analysis of variance,
and correlation analysis; data visualizations such as generating boxplots, scatterplots, histogram,
etc.; and modelling such as linear and multiple regression, time series, clustering, etc. See the
figures below for the sample activity outputs. The intervention period lasted for over 1 month.
Right after the intervention period, a delayed post-test is conducted. The same instrument used in
the pre-test – the data analysis performance test and the statistical anxiety rating scale, is
administered to both control and experimental groups during the post-test. A week after, a focus
group discussion is conducted to students under the experimental group, asking their learning
experience in the utilization of R programming for data analysis.
Statistical Analysis
The collected pre-test scores, post-test scores, and students’ responses in the FGD are
analyzed. Students’ level of data analysis performance and statistical anxiety were analyzed
using descriptive statistics, specifically the mean and standard deviation. The one-way analysis
of covariance (ANCOVA) is utilized to determine if R programming has a significant effect in
improving students’ data analysis performance and reducing statistical anxiety. Thematic
analysis is used to uncover underlying themes among students’ responses based on their learning
experience of using R programming in data analysis.
