Analysis of How Masters’ Curriculum Meets the Needs of Masters’ Students’ Use of Statistics in Research

Abstract

Knowledge is valued as a vital asset for progress and prosperity in every sphere of human understanding. Knowledge is attributed with successful innovation in firms. Research has been identified as the main source of knowledge. In Kenya, University students have been accused of doing low quality research. Statistics is important in research, it starts at the planning stage to establish the design and sample size. Studies have pointed to wrong use of statistics as a contributing factor towards low quality research. The purpose of this study was; to determine masters’ curriculum meets the needs of masters’ students’ use of statistics in research, a case of curriculums of universities of western Kenya. Three curriculums from 3 different universities were analyzed. The study established that; general objectives and specific objectives in courses related to statistics adequately covered the requirements for statistics training; the scheduled content for the core courses covered descriptive and inferential statistics; ICT concepts are catered for in the sampled masters’ curriculums, however, the courses are too wide to be effectively learned in one semester of 4 months; The study established that lectures, class discussion and students presentations are common methods of instruction across the sampled curriculums. The study established that continuous assessment tests and end of semester sit in exam were the common form of exams administered. In addition in one case there were also term papers and practical in some courses. However the end of semester exam carried more weight of 60%. The study recommended for proper integration of ICT and statistics, increase of statistical courses and use of open book examination