Journal Article

  • Evaluates the effectiveness of 2 different computer assisted instruction (CAI) formats compared with traditional in-class instruction as a laboratory supplement to lectures in introductory statistics. 134 students enrolled in an introductory statistics course in psychology were assigned to 1 of the 3 lab sessions. The evaluation consisted of affective responses to a questionnaire concerning the lab session, as well as student performance on 3 homework assignments and on a midterm examination. Lab format had a significant effect on attitude toward the lab; it did not, however, significantly influence performance. Path analysis revealed relations between lab format, student attitude toward the lab, and performance on the midterm exam. (PsycLIT Database Copyright 1990 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved)

  • Discusses some of the myths surrounding grading on the curve. Provides a simple explanation of such statistical terms as histograms, relative frequency, normal distribution, mean, and standard deviation. Describes how to restructure the curve, including the program listing for a computer program that will assist the teacher. (TW)

  • Argues that an SAS program enables instructors to provide individual students with simulated data for the 1-way between Ss design. The instructor chooses the starting values: means, standard deviations, and number of Ss. For each student, the program produces an ASCII data file that can be analyzed by calculator or by many statistical software packages. For the instructor, the program produces a summary ANOVA table for each analysis. Individual student names appear on the data sets and the summary file for the instructor. (PsycLIT Database Copyright 1994 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved)

  • Examines the strengths and weaknesses of five selected statistical software packages with respect to how well the software enhances business statistics instructors's ability to teach traditionally difficult topics. Ranks the software on technical and pedagogical benefits. Results indicate (1) no advantage to using textbook-related software over generic software; and (2) teaching enhancement by appropriate software use. (MDH)

  • Evaluated the effectiveness of interactive computer demonstrations in teaching about statistical sampling distributions. 39 undergraduates used a Monte Carlo simulation of either standard errors (SEMDEMO) or F-distributions (FDEMO) and were subsequently tested on both concepts. In Study 1, only lower ability students using FDEMO showed improved attainment related to their specific experience. SEMDEMO was then simplified, following student feedback. Study 2, with 65 undergraduates, showed higher specific attainment related to interactive experience with both SEMDEMO and FDEMO, particularly in lower ability students. Reasons for improved performance may include increased practice and deeper processing of concepts. (PsycLIT Database Copyright 1992 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved)

  • Describes elementary graph theory statistics, features that characterize differences in cognitive study strategies, and the use of STUDY for gathering trace data for research on patterns of cognition. STUDY affords a high degree of learner control and is an excellent medium for collecting data on individual differences. STUDY users navigate through content and apply studying actions such as underlining, taking notes, requesting elaborations, and attempting test items. As this happens, STUDY creates detailed time-stamped records of the learner's interactions in a log file. This sequence of study actions is reduced to a set of nodes representing action types and a set of links representing a temporal relation. The output of STUDY can yield resemblance statistics that can allow comparison of single actions by a student as well as comparison across students to reveal differences in cognitive processing routines. (French abstract) (PsycLIT Database Copyright 1995 American Psychological Assn, all rights reserved)

  • Describes the use of a microcomputer-based authoring system to facilitate student-centered discovery oriented learning in an undergraduate social science course. Use of the authoring system to implement student-generated experiments, to become familiar with statistics and experimental methods, and to promote empirical thinking is discussed. (14 references) (LRW)

  • This paper describes an interactive Web-based tutorial that supplements instruction on statistical power. This freely available tutorial provides several interactive exercises that guide students as they draw multiple samples from various populations and compare results for populations with differing parameters (for example, small standard deviation versus large standard deviation). The tutorial assignment includes diagnostic multiple-choice questions with feedback addressing misconceptions, and follow-up questions suitable for grading. The sampling exercises utilize an interactive Java applet that graphically demonstrates relationships between statistical power and effect size, null and alternative populations and sampling distributions, and Type I and II error rates. The applet allows students to manipulate the mean and standard deviation of populations, sample sizes, and Type I error rate. Students (n = 84) enrolled in introductory and intermediate statistics courses overwhelmingly rated the tutorial as clear, useful, easy to use, and they reported increased comfort with the topic of statistical power after using the tutorial. Students who used the tutorial outperformed those who did not use the tutorial on a final exam question measuring knowledge of the factors influencing statistical power.

  • Teaching elementary statistical inference from a traditional viewpoint can be hard, due to the difficulty in teaching sampling distributions and the correct interpretation of statistical confidence. Bayesian methods have the attractive feature that statistical conclusions can be stated using the language of subjective probability. Simple methods of teaching Bayes' rule are described, and these methods are illustrated for inference and prediction problems for one and two proportions. We discuss the advantages and disadvantages of traditional and Bayesian approaches in teaching inference and give texts that provide examples and software for implementing Bayesian methods in an elementary class.

  • This article describes the evaluation of the teaching of statistical inference in a first statistics class. A sample survey project is described as a means of assessing the effectiveness of a Bayesian approach in communicating the basis tenets of inference. There are several advantages of the Bayes viewpoint in performing this survey project, including the explicit modeling of one's prior opinion by means of a probability distribution and the relative ease in reporting statistical conclusions. Some evidence is presented to show that students with sufficient knowledge can accurately specify probability distributions. The success of the survey project is evaluated, and changes to the structure of the project are described that facilitate the interaction of the instructor with the students.

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