THE INFLUENCE OF CURRICULUM IMPLEMENTATION ON MASTERS’ STUDENTS’ USE OF STATISTICS IN RESEARCH

Abstract

Knowledge is attributed to successful innovation in firms and research has been identified as the main source of knowledge. University students in Kenya have been accused of doing low quality research. One of the major components of research is data analysis that is either qualitative or quantitative. In quantitative analysis statistics is majorly used. Statistics starts at the planning stage to establish the design and sample size all the way to data analysis. However, simple statistical notions are sometimes misunderstood or misinterpreted by research workers in many disciplines who have limited knowledge of statistics. The purpose of this paper was to determine how the masters’ curriculum implementation meets the needs for use statistics. The study used descriptive survey design complimented with case study design. A total of 83 respondents from 3 different universities participated in the study. Frequencies and regression analysis were used to analyze data. The study exposed flaws in training of researchers in use of statistics. The study therefore noted that adequate training based on a rich curriculum in statistics is essential to use statistics in research.