Research

  • This study is aimed at the investigation of the non-cognitive factors related to students' belief and attitude before and after taking an introductory statistics using an interview methodology. Of particular interest is to compare students' belief and attitude between students from a technology-rich class and from a traditional class.

  • This article reports an exploratory study of what 13 to 14 year olds understand when confronted by the word average in the context of an everyday situation.

  • This is an actual survey that was used as part of a project designed to study how people interpret descriptions of psychological research studies.

  • Statistics instructors and others interested in the teaching of statistics will find many print and nonprint resources on this topic. The print literature on the teaching of statistics is largely anecdotal and comprises mainly recommendations for instruction based on the experiences and intuitions of individual instructors. Less than 30% of the print literature reports the results of empirical studies, but these cover a broad range of topics, including the use of computers in statistics education, teaching materials, and teaching strategies. A large portion of the nonempirical literature is devoted to descriptions of statistics courses and specific lessons that, though untested, still provide a resource for instruction. Recently numerous nonprint (electronic) resources for instruction, problem solving, and discussions about statistics instruction have also become available. These include many data sets and other instructional resources, statistics discussion groups, and the electronic Journal of Statistics Education.

  • In recent years the focus of research in survey sampling has changed to include a number of nontraditional topics such as sampling errors. In addition, the availability of data from large-scale sample surveys, along with computers and software to analyze the data, have changed the tools needed by survey sampling statisticians. It has also resulted in a diverse group of secondary data users who wish to learn how to analyze data from a complex survey. Thus it is time to reassess what we should be teaching students about survey sampling. This article brings together a panel of experts on survey sampling and teaching to discuss their views on what should be taught in survey sampling classes and how it should be taught.

  • My purpose in this paper is to analyze how students in one middle-school classroom came to understand the data creation process and the importance of that process to the drawing of conclusions from statistical data.

  • My purpose in this paper is to document the learning of one teacher as she interacted with a group of seventh-grade students over the course of a twelve-week research project focused on statistical data analysis.

  • This exploratory study examined errors that students commit solving multiple-choice questions about descriptive statistics and basic concepts in research methods. The sample consisted of 81 undergraduate students in an introductory statistics course. The results indicated that the most frequently detected errors were confusing concepts, misinterpreting descriptive information, applying inappropriate procedures and applying partial information. Analysis reveal potential sources of students' errors include assimilation of statistical concepts into inappropriate schemata, failure to use knowledge sources, and lack of ability to relate and combine knowledge from different sources.

  • The meaning of success as experienced by students in statistical methods courses is described. Six social science graduate students who had completed several statistical methods courses were interviewed. The qualitative method of phenomenology was used to understand the essence of success by analyzing the students' experiences and perceptions. The students described success as an accumulation of conceptual knowledge that they are able to apply and communicate to others. They experienced success predominantly in the context of working in study groups. Success was precipitated by and coupled with positive feelings such as confidence and happiness.

  • The purpose of this study is to examine our efforts to help preservice teachers develop statistical knowledge and experience through integrating reasoning with data into existing K-6 curriculum via a professional field-based practicum.

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