Statistics has gained recognition as an important component of many disciplines including medical and health sciences (MHS). Medical doctors and health related professionals need to understand the process of statistical investigations and be able to plan statistical inquiry in medical and health related decisions. In this respect, statistical knowledge and skills are considered as part of required competencies for medical doctors and health related professionals. Furthermore, planners and policy-makers in the MHS education institutions need to apply research-based information to maintain and improve quality of teaching-learning processes. Toward meeting the above objectives, a medical education research workshop was designed at Shaheed Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Health Services in Iran. The workshop was developed and implemented to provide medical doctors with opportunities to get their hands on statistical investigations. In doing so, based on three types of research methods in medical education systems, statistical tools were presented through data-oriented approach. In this paper first the curricular structure of the workshop is briefly presented. Then, based on data from interviews with participants, the impact of the workshop on developing statistical knowledge and skills to solve medical education system problems is analyzed. The results indicate that workshop approach motivated the participants to develop a conceptual understanding of statistical ideas and their applications to investigate problems of teaching-learning systems.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education