Abstract

As the main objective of this paper, the investigators aimed to analyze the correlation between theory and practice observed during a teaching experience in times of the COVID-19 pandemic in the quantitative methods module. Hence, the authors applied an observational, cross-sectional, prospective, and analytical design through which theoretical-practical qualifications were acquired during four months of the school year from a group of 22 nursing students. In addition, they used three questionnaire-type measurement instruments to estimate theoretical, practical training, and practical learning applied in topics such as sample size calculation, internal validation of instruments, univariate/bivariate statistics, and multivariate statistics. In terms of data, it was obtained by collecting the qualifications from Google Forms. In this way, the researchers carried out a theoretical-practical correlation analysis with the grades obtained, reaching only a direct, moderate, and significant correlation between theory and practice of multivariate statistics (r = .579; p = .005). In conclusion, there was practically no theoretical-practical correlation between the contents evaluated, except in those considered complex (multivariate statistics). Hence, the researchers suggested that the strategy presented here be applied in any subject as a method of pedagogical control in order to observe if the theory-practice dialectical unity is preserved or has been lost, and the possible factors that cause it are analyzed.

Keywords Online Learning; Statistics; Educational Strategy; Teaching Practice; Academic Performance; Theory-Practice