Data Science in Education
Hi, my name is Khalid Gharib. I am an aspiring Data Scientist, my interest in Data Science stems from my love and curiosity in data, seeing patterns, being able to see deeper meanings in data and being able to answer my curiosities, which at times can be silly and unimpactful questions, but at other times question that carry weight and impact
Malcolm X is quoted as saying “Education is the passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to those who prepare for it today.”
one of the applications of data science that I have had a keen eye on is related to education and medicine. the leaps and bounds that have been made in both have been inspiring to me. I have always felt that data and data science more specifically has been able to impact both these sectors in a meaningful positive way, and coming from a background where my family run and operate a school and where I from a young age been very involved in the inner workings has made me have a passion for education. I have developed a love in Data Science and I see it as means and opportunity by which I can contribute, develop and improve the school, and hopefully maybe one day the education sector as a whole for the better.
Data science represents the bringing together of statistics and computing (notably machine learning) to learn from ‘big data’. Data Science is the merging between Computer science or IT which is where the coding skills come in, Maths and Statistical knowledge by which the machine learning can be applied and Business knowledge, which is asking the right questions and getting to the right answers based on both internal and external factors.
It is using tools and expertise on data to answer questions. Questions that when answered can give us an insight and understanding on things that can have huge impacts. For this reason, the application of Data Science is so important in the education sector.
Education plays a big role in human development and advancement, and so the advancement and improvement of schools is the advancement of society
Some of the pitfalls though are that not all schools within the education sector have integrated technologies at the level which is necessary for the data science tool to be implemented and to be used to the top potential. As well as this in many schools teachers are not very tech-savvy and are unable to realize that the data collected has so much potential or even understand the real need for collecting data.
Through the use of Data Science and the effective use of data in the education sector, it can lead to:
- improvement in the allocation and use of resources. We can make sure that resources are used effectively and efficiently to ensure we make the most of them.
- Being able to monitor and see the effectiveness and efficiency of initiatives and programs, from this we will know whether certain initiatives are worth continuing or maybe it might be better to try different initiatives.
- Can help and improve adaptive learning enabling teachers to be more productive in the way they tackle problems and the way they teach students, it also aids in helping students according to their needs.
- Social-Emotional skill is an area which is becoming increasingly important. this is teaching students how to acquire a better capacity to understand, analyze, express and manage emotions, especially in times which have become increasingly stressful, this again can be done by improving adaptive learning and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of initiatives and then can be incorporated in them to make sure these skills are being communicated and taught
- Improve student performance, Teachers can use data and analytical tools to be able to track and evaluate students performance and based on the data results can decide and suggest pathways and options on how best to aid and help each student on a more personal level and help them reach their utmost potential
- Specific to something like the GCSE, based on data collected we can see that certain subject combination helped students achieve better results and outcomes, and are more related to each other, Or even that certain subjects are always chosen sides by side like Math and sciences and so a school can have those available to students.’’
even more, the potential leaps and bounds that can be made by implementing Data Science in the education sectors and schools are limitless. such as using the Data to be able to see trends in student behaviour, skills, knowledge, personality andto even be able to maybe one day predict accurately the types of jobs/industries that are best suited
the more the education sector moves towards implementing technologies in the way they teach as well as their internal workings, the more Data that can be collected and this will lead to more opportunities by which we can extract answers, trends, relationships from that data which can lead us to new discoveries, clearer understandings and even further improvements in all fields in the education sector.