“Peeragogy” in Action: Utilizing Applied Research in the Graduate Criminal Justice Classroom

• In Event: Efforts to Improve Student Performance in Criminology Classrooms

Abstract

Although some research has investigated the attitudes of students regarding statistics, very little research we are aware of has focused on criminal justice students enrolled in graduate statistics courses. Using peer pedagogy (or peeragogy), which assumes that peer-to-peer collaboration is the center of the educational experience, our study examines criminal justice graduate students attitudes toward statistics before and after engaging in an applied research project that administered the Women’s Correctional Safety Scales (WCSS) survey to incarcerated women at a large metropolitan jail. Results from four different sequences of the same course will be compared regarding graduate students’ attitudes towards statistics and the course.

Authors

• Krista D. Smithers, Eastern Kentucky University

• Rossana A. Diaz, Eastern Kentucky University

• Anna Reeves, Eastern Kentucky University

• James Wells, Eastern Kentucky University