Hook Jia-Han Yang: Using Data to Make Meaningful Contributions in the Classroom

PSM Applied Research and Evaluation

Hook Jia-Han Yang is a second-year graduate student in the Applied Research and Evaluation Professional Science Master’s program in the College of Education and Human Development. Originally from Taiwan, he brings a strong background in education and community service. He reflects on his experience in Philadelphia as an international student and explains how his interest in understanding people and their diverse perspectives shapes his approach to data-oriented work at Temple. This human-centered perspective enables him to draw more nuanced insights and consider how data can be applied to improve not only local communities but society more broadly.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Can you give us a bit of background about yourself and your program of study at Temple? 

I’m a second-year master's student in the Applied Research and Evaluation (ARE) program. Interestingly, the name of the program can be intimidating to people, but the epiphany that I had in high school was that I am sort of an “academic nerd”. This is not to say that I enjoy just locking myself in the dorm; it’s much more about engaging in intellectual conversations and diving into the complexities of different things. Before I came to the United States, I taught a class on critical thinking at a public high school. As the facilitator, I instructed the students to draw connections between social issues and their underlying causes using cultural heritage preservation as a medium of discussion. This combines with my passion for research. When I talk to people or design surveys, I have to acknowledge that it can be a very long process, but overall, it’s fun. Getting the chance to sit down with the data and do that detective work is very rewarding as a student researcher. As such, it all lends to the ARE program. It is still related to education, as well as research, which is an area of passion that I have. With these two ingredients together, and the opportunity for intellectual dialogue, I realized that this program is the perfect fit for me.  

You mentioned that some might hear “applied research” and feel intimidated. In your own words, how would you describe the merits of this program to someone who may not understand it? 

Research itself is not scary. The point is just to see why things happen and how we can move forward. The ARE program helps us understand how to approach different research methods and tools, not only to analyze data but also to develop the judgment to design studies that can contribute to society. The content may be dry at times, but in most cases, I find it useful, whether for understanding others’ research studies or for upholding methodological rigor. It lays the groundwork for my future identity: an emerging scholar whose work can yield real impacts. 

When people from outside the ARE program hear terms like “quantitative analysis” or even the program name itself, an initial response from most people is, “What is that?” But deep down, it’s all about how to do research so that we can investigate the things that we really want to discover. With research, in the long term, we can make our society, and in my case, the educational fields, a better place. 

How has the interdisciplinary toolset that you’ve built through your studies at Temple aided you in your career pursuits thus far? 

I serve as an intern at Mitzvah Circle, a nonprofit based in Lansdale, PA, that helps local communities. At Mitzvah, we understand that everything can happen—from being stricken hard by poverty and forced to juggle between food and diapers, to unexpected emergencies that make school supplies a luxury. The organization would like to assess the impacts that it can create. Joining the existing Impact Study project, I bring to the team everything I learned from studying research methods, including how to triangulate findings and build a literature review. I work with the director of impact to analyze and interpret their data and optimize the data collection processes. I also optimized the phone script to make sure the questions are tied to research questions while making sure they are accessible to the clients. Research itself is not tied to a specific field, so broadly speaking, the things we learn in the ARE program are transferable across many fields. 

It’s clear that you have a strong passion for education, could you please describe some of the work you’ve done in the field and what it means to you personally? 

I was first formally involved in education as a college freshman. At a middle school near my undergraduate institution, I served as a volunteer tutor for student athletes, helping them build the foundation they needed for the English subject. That was my first time getting my hands dirty in the field of education, and from it, I learned so much about human touch.  

My firm commitment to education was affirmed during the later stages of my college life, thanks to opportunities at Project Let’s Go. After working with students from various communities, such as indigenous peoples in Taiwan and international students, I came to think about what it means to be “diverse” and how to recognize these students’ different talents and efforts, and how they are assets to their communities. It was not until then that I felt a strong inclination toward the field of education. At the same time, I realized that my passion lies in research because I enjoyed going through the deep thinking and learning and unlearning what the data tells me, which is something I discovered during my undergraduate years.  

Then, I found Temple. It’s such an amazing place, not only because the program itself matched with what I was interested in, but also because Temple cares so much about the community of Philadelphia and the injustices and inequity within it. These core values and the mission of the university resonate with my personal beliefs and what I think is good for society.  

Do you think that your time working in education has helped you understand data on a more human level? Is this an important component of data analysis in general? 

A few days ago, I was having a conversation with my supervisor as I was interpreting some data. I thought that the data might not be “academic” enough to be accepted in a journal, but she told me something that I will never forget. She explained that even if the data “doesn’t look that good,” what matters is understanding the context—knowing the communities, their challenges, and the questions the research truly aims to answer. With that human element guiding interpretation, she says, researchers can still work with the data, as long as they maintain integrity. Though my main focus is now on research, I’m still continuing my educational service. I really enjoy that education has taught me how to be considerate, apart from just looking into the data and making conclusions. My work is rooted in the social sciences, so in order to let the data speak for itself, a deep understanding of contexts is necessary. 

Could you describe your experience as an international student in Philadelphia and how it has influenced the course of your studies? 

I have come to appreciate the English idiom “don’t judge a book by its cover”. The hyper-diversity in Philadelphia has taught me that I should not interact with different kinds of people based on assumptions that could be outright wrong. Being in this community, I have learned how to have better conversations because it is through conversation that we try to understand each other. There were so many things about the community that I didn’t understand, and the best way to learn is to just ask: “What did you mean by that?”, “Tell me more about yourself?”, “What interests you?”. These questions are so powerful because they not only give me a lens to Philadelphia, but they also show me how to connect with other people.