Emerging Methods in PER: Observations from Working on the Statistical Modeling Review Committee

Physics Education Researchers have been embracing increasingly more sophisticated statistical methods to gain greater insights into the factors that most impact student learning and growth. These techniques can provide important opportunities for guiding advancement in our field. However, they also provide challenges as it is easy to misinterpret results from these analyses. After a brief overview of the opportunities, and challenges, I will share some of the most prevalent issues that we see in papers sent to the statistical modeling review committee. These examples will provide context and motivation for a discussion of a draft set of guidelines being developed to help researchers and referees maintain consistent publication standards for quantitative research. Overall, these review guidelines aim to ensure that authors provide justified interpretations of their studies and share enough information about their studies to encourage replication, extension, and meta-analysis.