Fridays are normally a happy day because it is the day before the weekend. But when you work on the weekends, as many academics do, it loses some of that luster. However, I opened my inbox this morning to news that a paper I had worked on was accepted for publication. That is always a great way to start the day.
This article is out of my normal wheelhouse of mathematics. The topic is actually about Reading Recovery. A friend of mine, Nathaniel Hansford of the Pedagogy Non Grata website, was doing a meta-analysis of the Reading Recovery research. This is a subject he knows pretty well, both reading and meta-analysis. I had wanted to know more about conducting a meta-analysis since they are quite useful in evaluating research. So, I joined the team and helped out.
I do have experience conducting systematic reviews, but had never taken that next step to meta-analysis. There have been a few professional development opportunities I considered but they never really fit into my schedule. So, when I heard that my friend was doing one, I asked how I could help. He gave me some quick training and I realized I already knew a fair amount of the processes already. We reviewed and coded articles as you would in any systematic literature review. We pulled out the data. We compared results for interobserver agreement and procedural fidelity. Then the fun part began.
Statistics is not my favorite subject. I've taken a few courses over my career, but I am normally a single-subject design researcher. I use small numbers of subjects for my interventions and use visual analysis. However meta-analyses use statistical analysis to determine effects. I knew I did not have the expertise to do the calculations, but Nate did. It was very eye-opening to go through this process to see what was required.
We finished up all the work in late summer and submitted the paper to a journal. Initially, it was returned for some additional calculations and revisions on the writing. We did that and resubmitted. Of course, waiting is the hardest part. But that is the game in academia. And we got the good news today. We have a second paper under review as well, so I'm hoping to get more good news soon. And I feel more comfortable doing a meta-analysis on math interventions for early numeracy now. If only I could find the time...
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