Research

  • In this paper, I will report and summarize some preliminary results of two ongoing studies. The aim is to identify problem areas and difficulties of students in elementary data analysis based on preliminary results from the two ongoing studies. The general idea of the two projects is similar. Students took a course in data analysis where they learned to use a software tool, used the tool during the course, and worked on a data analysis project with this tool at the end of the course. The course covered elementary data analysis tools, such as variables and variable types, box plots, frequency tables and graphs, two-way frequency tables, summary measures (median, mean, quartiles, interquartile range, range), scatterplots, and line plots. The grouping of data and the comparison of distributions in the subgroups defined by a grouping variable was an important idea related to studying the dependence of two variables. The methods for analyzing dependencies differed according to the type of variables: for example, scatterplots were used in the case of two numerical variables, and two-way frequency tables and related visualizations were used in the case of two categorical variables.

  • Early generalizations concerning conceptions of randomness were based on "probability-learning" experiments in which subjects predicted successive elements of random sequences, receiving trial-by-trial feedback. The conclusion was that humans are incapable of perceiving randomness. Convinced there was some pattern in the stimuli, most subjects believed the oncoming event depended on preceding ones (Lee [29]). The predicted sequenes that deviated systematically from randomness. However, evidence concerning people's notion of randonmness in these expereiments is indirect. The produced sequences, which are influenced by various feedback contingencies, may largely reflect subjects' hypotheses concerning the goal of the experiment and their problem-solving strategies.

  • Simulation data are used to test a student's beliefs about the relative probabilities of two sequences obtained by flipping a fair coin. The episode is used to illustrate general issues in using simulations instructionally.

  • Translation of La genése de l'idée de hasard chez l'enfant. Piaget and Inhelder study the development of the idea of chance in children. According to them, the concept of probability as a formal set of ideas develops only during the formal operational stage, which occurs about twelve years of age. By that age, children can reason probabilistically about a variety of randomising devices. In an experiment to demonstrate that children have an intuitive understanding of the law of large numbers and that intuitive thinking about chance events starts even before they are taught, they used a game with pointers which were stuck onto cards divided into various sectors and then spun. They found the children could predict that, in the long run, the pointer would fall onto every region marked on the card.

  • Statistical literacy, the art of drawing reasonable inferences from an abundance of numbers provided daily by the media, is indispensable for an educated citizenship, as are reading and writing. Unlike reading and writing, however, sound statistical reasoning is rarely taught, and if it has been taught, it was with little success. This book presents and discusses new empirical and theoretical results about the topic of eveyday statistical reasoning, that is, how people think and act on probabilistic information. It focuses on how porcesses of statistical reasoning work in detail and how training programs can exploit natural cognitive capabilities to improve statistical reasoning. (From preface)

  • Explored 5th graders' reasoning about data modeling by conducting 2 design experiments. In Exp 1, 10 Ss assumed the role of data analysts and developed a survey, collected and coded data, and used the dynamic notations of hypermedia to compare the lifestyles of American colonists to their own. In Exp 2, 2 5th graders and their teacher developed and used a randomized distribution to reason about the likelihood of ESP. Analysis of student conversations, including their dialogue with the teacher-researcher, indicated that the construction of data was an important preamble to description and inference. Students' ideas about many elements of data modeling were related to forms of notation. Experimentation afforded a framework for teaching about inference, grounded by the creation of a randomization distribution of the students' data.

  • We present a study of the meanings of average and variation displayed by paediatirc nurses. We trace how these meanings shape, and are shaped by, nurses' interpretations of trends in patient and population data. We suggest a theoretical framework for making sense of the data which compares and contrasts nurses' epistemology with that of official mathematics. Finally, we outline some provisional didactial implications.

  • Over the past decade there has been an increasingly strong call for statistics<br>education to focus on statistical literacy, statistical reasoning, and statistical<br>thinking. Our goal in creating this book is to provide a useful resource for educators<br>and researchers interested in helping students at all educational levels to develop<br>these cognitive processes and learning outcomes. This book includes cutting-edge<br>research on teaching and learning statistics, along with specific pedagogical<br>implications. We designed the book for academic audiences interested in statistics<br>education as well as for teachers, curriculum writers, and technology developers. (From preface)

  • On July 23, 1996, 36 researchers from different countries and 6 continents met in Granada, Spain, for an invitational Round Table conference sponsored by the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE). During the five days of the conference, we listened to presentations, viewed software demonstrations, and discussed challenging issues regarding the use of technology with students who are learning statistics. (From preface.)

  • In this paper I report two separate studies of congenital anomalies, one of which was generated by a media alarm, and the second that needed to disseminate research findings to the public through the mass media. There are many similarities between the two pieces of work and the process of disseminating results. Both show the importance of working with the media to share our work in an informed way to present a true evaluation of risks to the public. The first study, generated by media concern, was based on a cluster of four English babies born without a left hand. Although this original cluster on which the first part of this paper is based was several years ago, there are several important messages resulting from this work which are still as relevant today. The second study reports the findings of a collaborative study, known as EUROHAZCON, based in different locations in Europe, which tested whether living close to a landfill site was a risk factor for congenital anomalies. The media can have a huge impact both on what we do within our Congenital Anomaly Registers and in how we do it. It is useful to reflect on these studies and evaluate how the media influenced our work at the time. In particular, dealing with the media can be very time consuming whilst we are still trying to focus on the epidemiology.

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