Research

  • Instructors of statistics who teach non-statistics majors possess varied academic backgrounds, and hence it is reasonable to expect variability in their content knowledge, and pedagogical approach. The aim of this study was to determine the specific course(s) that contributed mostly to instructors' understanding of statistics. Courses reported were described as advanced or graduate level, and classified as application-based, math, multivariate, probability, and research. The majority, 9 (56%) attributed their understanding of statistics to either an application-based or research course, and of those, 7 (44%) reported negative feelings about their introductory courses. These findings underscore the importance of authentic activities, and constructivist pedagogy toward facilitating statistical literacy. Research is needed to determine the effect of instructors' academic preparation on their knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

  • This paper is aimed at identifying the invariants employed by teachers to understand the variation concept. Ten Mathematics teachers were involved in this research, in a process of continuing formation lasting 54 hours. During the early discussions with these teachers it was possible to identify the absence of such concept among them. When working with quantitative data we realized the teachers knew the algorithm for the calculation of standard deviation, although they were not able to interpret the results they obtained. At the end of the process we used an exercise to diagnose possible changes in the conceptual field of variation. Only one lady teacher was able to clearly identify data variation and the mean variation. Although we worked with such a small groups of teachers, we could notice that data variation is an intuitive concept, which does not happen in terms of standard deviation, which is extremely hard to interpret.

  • The research discussed in the paper comes from a multifaceted program for the teaching and learning of early statistical reasoning in Cyprus. The overall aim of the program is to enhance the quality of statistics education offered in Cypriot elementary schools by facilitating professional development of teachers using exemplary technological and educational tools and resources. As part of the program, professional development seminars for the teaching of statistics with the use of Tinkerplots@ - a dynamic data-visualization package designed specifically for young learners - were designed and offered to elementary school teachers. The article discusses insights gained from the seminars regarding the ways in which computer visualization tools can enhance teachers' content and pedagogical knowledge of statistics.

  • Java-applets have proved to be effective in different settings to demonstrate statistical concepts. The NSF-funded Statistics Online Computational Resource (SOCR) provides a number of interactive tools for enhancing instruction in various undergraduate and graduate courses in probability and statistics. In this paper, we present the results of a quasi-experiment aimed at assessing the effect of moderate use of SOCR on three outcome measures: course scores, student satisfaction and choice of technology to complete the final examination. One section of an upper division "Introduction to probability" class, the treatment group, was conducted with the instructor using the probability applets and materials as assessment tools in homework. Another section, the control group, of the same class was conducted exactly the same way, but not using SOCR. We compared the three outcome measures in the two groups and discuss ways to improve the quasi-experiment. Ideas are given on how to incorporate the applets in various probability courses.

  • This paper reports results the main errors and difficulties experienced by a group of eleven university students when solving problems of sampling distributions by means of computer simulation using Fathom software (Finzer et. al, 2002). The main difficulties were the formulation of the population model, the definition of the statistics to be calculated in each sample and the definition of the intervals to calculate the probabilities. It was not necessary to carry out some of the long processes of the pencil and paper environment which are the source of several mistakes and difficulties. It was also possible to facilitate the interpretation of some results such as the proportions of cases of interest out of the total of possible cases.

  • Student mastery of material from an introductory statistics course was compared across courses that differed by whether a progressive mastery testing method was used. Students taught using progressive mastery methods showed increases in exam scores. The increases were small but of the same order of magnitude as increases associated with earning a course grade of A versus B+ and as increases associated with 100 points increases on the SAT math test. The increase in exam scores was about 75% of the increase associated with having taken a high school advanced placement course in addition to the college introductory course. However these increases were short lived as these students showed double rates of decline when tested in follow-up semesters. All benefit of the method vanished within two semesters.

  • We investigate experiences of first-year, non-science students with three data analysis tools during a pre-Calculus, introductory statistics course at the American University in Cairo, Egypt. Students could choose between DataDesk, Excel or StatCrunch, and were required to use one of these packages to analyze data collected for a semester project. It was especially important to evaluate these software packages from the point of view of a first-time user with no previous experience in either Statistics or advanced computer usage; several students were at first somewhat apprehensive of using a computer to analyze data. Among other outcomes, this investigation led to the development of student-based comparison of three software packages, from the perspective of a large group of potential users.

  • This paper reports on our ongoing research on the teaching and learning of averages in secondary mathematics education based on a questionnaire that combine open-ended and multiple-choice questions. Analysis has led us to note that many students who choose the correct answers in multiple-choice questions were completely unable to demonstrate any reasonable method of solving related open questions.

  • This work used a test to explore capacities, limitations and errors that students may have during processes of learning statistical graphs in Primary Education. We display some results of a test given to groups of students from schools in New Zealand and Spain, to investigate how they make translations between different types of graphic representation.

  • In this article, we describe an experience with the teaching and learning of the Poisson´s Model, directed to university students. We used the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic and the principles of the Mathematical Modeling Process for the elaboration of the teaching sequence, showing that it is possible to build the model without resorting to the Binomial limit, making use of the notions of calculus. In the development of the learning activities, the computer was used as a didactic tool. The analysis of results was based on the Theory of the Semiotic Functions and proved that the students learned many significant elements considered in the teaching. On the other hand, the study allowed for the identification of difficulties throughout the process: for example, the interpretation of expressions such as "at least" and "at most", the representation used, the analysis of the results of hypothesis tests and the manipulation of the software.

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