Empirical Research in Education : Do Statistical Packages for Data Analysis Matter?

This paper is based on review of literature on the relevance of statistical packages in educational research. In this paper the importance of statistical packages for data analysis in educational research examined. The collective importance of statistical software packages is to help improve research expertise, make research work robust and faster, make research work easy and efficient, and minimize human error in data analysis. The paper clarifies the terms empirical research, and statistical data analysis. The statistical packages introduced in this paper include Microsoft Excel (MS-Excel), Minitab, Matlab, Stata, Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), R, Statistical Analysis System (SAS),and Econometric Views (Eviews). The common features of statistical software as identified in this paper are that their basic programme are evolving, and they use both menus and/or command languages. The factors limiting the use of statistical packages among educational researchers include the perceived usefulness, statistical software self-efficacy, and statistics anxiety. Ways proposed in this paper to encourage educational researchers embrace the use statistical packages are as follows: Educational researchers should be mandated by the law governing their establishment to be research analyst. Choosing statistical software packages to learn should be based on suitability of the software. Mentorship in using statistical software package is necessary for learners in educational research