How to reduce practical significance bias in science communication with pre-service teachers?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 9:45 am - Gold 3
  In Roundtable Session: Innovations in Research Production and Translation: Challenges, Possibilities, and Future Directions

Abstract

Successful science communication can support (pre-service) teachers in making more accurate evaluations of evidence and, thus, in drawing adequate evidence-informed conclusions for teaching practice. While media reports often lack effect sizes, insights from prior research suggest that this can reinforce a so-called practical significance bias (PSB; assuming strong effects when no effect sizes are reported). The two present experimental studies aim to replicate PSB among pre-service teachers and analyze whether alternative communication forms using Cohen’s U3 and overlap, reduces overestimations of presented mean differences. The findings confirm the existence of PSB (0.91 ≤ destimated ≤ 1.42 while dtrue = 0.2), but also show that overlap can elicit quite accurate average estimations in pre-service teachers (0.13 ≤ d ≤ 0.41).

Authors

• Kirstin Schmidt, Karlsruhe University of Education

• Florian Felix Alfons Kühlwein, Karlsruhe University of Education

• Samuel Merk, Karlsruhe University of Education