Education Research: Getting Started

Statistics education research advances knowledge, informs teaching practices, and improves learning outcomes, but how does a higher education statistics educator get started in research? A panel discussion at the inaugural UK Conference on Teaching Statistics (UKCOTS) in 2024 addressed this challenge. The panel discussed the following core topics, as voted for by delegates: Research vs. Scholarship, Research and Scholarship in Statistics Education, Getting Started in a Research Project, Obtaining Ethics Approval, Designing a Research Project, Exploring Visualising, and Analysing Data, Writing a Manuscript, and Publishing. In this paper, the panellists and organisers summarise and expand the discussions and recommend further resources, resulting in a “quick start” guide for statistics educators beginning their research journey. We also offer a brief history of statistics education research and scholarship, to help situate the paper in the relevant literature, and further guide readers to important and interesting areas of influential work.