Ep41: Jonathan McGuire, Data Analyst & Evaluator

Today my guest is Jonathan McGuire, a Data Analyst & Evaluator. In this episode, we explore data and statistics and how these are typically gathered, analysed, evaluated, and communicated across various fields including psychology, public health, business and education. Jonathan shares some of this early study and research activities - such as those involving honey bees, their foraging behaviour and how they learn - through to later research in human moral cognition, or how people make moral decisions and judgements. Jonathan offers insights into a range of professional practices and approaches in the field of data analytics, such as statistical models, hierarchical linear modelling, business intelligence, the scientist/practitioner model, adaptive clinical trials and structured feedback loops. Jonathan talks us through some of his evaluation activities and how his team investigated a “compressed curriculum” for high school students, evaluating its impact on Higher School Certificate (HSC) results and a range of other more subjective areas such as teacher and student beliefs and attitudes, and other school-level effects. Mindful that data is often about real people and situations, such as data sets related to mental health and suicide, Jonathan offers insights into some of the moral and ethical elements. We explore some of the social responsibilities associated with data, and how these might be managed by generally treating the data and its communication with appropriate care and respect. For example: the increasing acknowledgement and use of collaboration and conversations with relevant research stakeholders. We explore how ethics relates to new and emerging technology such artificial intelligence and machine learning, algorithms and bias, and the importance of bringing members of the public along on the journey, so they get to realise the value of the data as well. Links: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mcguirejonathan/ Transcript: https://pastebin.com/WpAr1ug3