Students Are Rarely Independent: When, Why, and How to Use Random Effects in Discipline-Based Education Research

CBE Life Sciences Education
Elli Theobald

Abstract

Discipline-based education researchers have a natural laboratory-classrooms, programs, colleges, and universities. Studies that administer treatments to multiple sections, in multiple years, or at multiple institutions are particularly compelling for two reasons: first, the sample sizes increase, and second, the implementation of the treatments can be intentionally designed and carefully monitored, potentially negating the need for additional control variables. However, when studies are implemented in this way, the observations on students are not completely independent; rather, students are clustered in sections, terms, years, or other factors. Here, I demonstrate why this clustering can be problematic in regression analysis. Fortunately, nonindependence of sampling can often be accounted for with random effects in multilevel regression models. Using several examples, including an extended example with R code, this paper illustrates why and how to implement random effects in multilevel modeling. It also provides resources to promote implementation of analyses that control for the nonindependence inherent in many quasi-random sampling designs.

References

Nov 1, 1975·The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology·R R RosenthalW R Summer
Feb 3, 2009·Trends in Ecology & Evolution·Benjamin M BolkerJada-Simone S White
Jun 3, 2011·CBE Life Sciences Education·Scott FreemanMary Pat Wenderoth
May 14, 2014·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Scott FreemanMary Pat Wenderoth
Sep 4, 2014·CBE Life Sciences Education·Debra L LintonRachel E Sherwood
Sep 4, 2014·CBE Life Sciences Education·Sarah L EddyMary Pat Wenderoth

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Citations

May 24, 2019·CBE Life Sciences Education·Benjamin J EnglandMiranda M Chen
Sep 24, 2019·Journal of Biological Rhythms·Giulia ZerbiniMartha Merrow
Mar 11, 2020·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Elli J TheobaldScott Freeman
Nov 18, 2018·CBE Life Sciences Education·Deborah A DonovanDaniel Z Grunspan
Apr 16, 2021·CBE Life Sciences Education·Remy DouValentina Espinosa-Suarez
Feb 16, 2021·Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education·Sadie HebertSehoya Cotner
Jul 21, 2021·CBE Life Sciences Education·Sara OdomCissy J Ballen
Sep 22, 2021·CBE Life Sciences Education·Jennifer S AvenaJennifer K Knight

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Software Mentioned

AIC
DBER
glmulti
lme4
R package
R
lmer
AICcmodavg

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