Journal Article

  • Traditional methods of teaching introductory statistics are often viewed as being ineffective because they fail to establish a clear link between statistics and its uses in the real world. To be more effective, it is essential that teaching objectives are clearly defined at the outset and issues of content and methodology are addressed accordingly. This paper proposes that the relevant objectives should aim to develop the following competencies: (a) ability to link statistics and real-world situations, (2) knowledge of basic statistical concepts, (3) ability to synthesize the components of a statistical study and to communicate the results in a clear manner. Towards these objectives, we propose a revamp of the traditional course together with the creation of a new software tool that is currently unavailable.

  • Statisticians and others who teach statistics at liberal arts colleges enjoy opportunities and encounter difficulties that are unique to the liberal arts setting. In July 1987 a small group of statisticians participated in a workshop at which discussion focused on three major issues: statistics in the liberal arts, the teaching of statistics, and the role of a statistician at a liberal arts college. By summarizing our discussion in this report we hope to provide support for statisticians at liberal arts colleges and to initiate discussion directed toward giving statistics education a prominent position in the liberal arts curriculum.

  • The aim of this research was to identify students' preconceptions concerning statistical association in contingency tables. An experimental study was carried out with 213 preuniversity students, and it was based on students' responses to a written questionnaire including 2 x 2, 2 x 3, and 3 x 3 contingency tables. In this article, the students' judgments of association and solution strategies are compared with the findings of previous psychological research on 2 x 2 contingency tables. We also present an original classification of students' strategies, from a mathematical point of view. Correspondence analysis is used to show the effect of item task variables on students' strategies. Finally, we include a qualitative analysis of the strategies of 51 students, which has served to characterize three misconceptions concerning statistical association.

  • Over several semesters, we changed form the traditional lecture approach to cooperative learning. After some initial difficulty, we found procedures that work in classes of 40 to 100 students. Data consist of final grade distributions, the number of students retained in the class, and responses on a questionnaire that asked students' attitudes towards the group activities. Working in cooperative groups resulted in higher final scores in two experimental sections than in a comparison course section. A higher percentage of students successfully completed the course in the experimental sections, and student attitudes toward the cooperative group experience were positive.

  • The World Wide Web (WWW) is a tool that can be used in many ways for basic statistics education. Using the latest WWW technology, educators can now include interactive demonstrations in the form of Java applets within their WWW materials. Six example applets developed by the authors are introduced and discussed. Suggestions for class are made, and instructions for incorporating the applets within a WWW document are given

  • To help students develop statistical reasoning, a traditional introductory statistics course was modified to incorporate a semester-long sequence of projects, with written and oral reports of the results. Student test scores improved dramatically, and students were overwhelmingly positive in their assessment of this new approach.

  • This article discusses one active learning technique, cooperative learning, that can be used in large classes. This technique requires that students be divided into learning teams. A method for quickly dividing a large class of students into learning teams is presented. Two examples of cooperative learning exercises used in an introductory statistics class are given. These serve as illustrations of the type of cooperative learning exercises that can be assigned in a large class. In particular, these exercises were used in a class of 195 students. Preliminary findings by the instructor of the advantages of using cooperative learning exercises are discussed.

  • Students crack a simple substitution code using character frequencies in texts sampled from web pages. Frequencies are tabulated by a web-based character counter. This quick and simple project reinforces notions of sampling variability and emphasizes the need to complement statistical techniques with intuition.

  • This article examines the usefulness of multimedia technology for teaching statistics, with attention to both promises and pitfalls. We suggest some principles for the design and use of multimedia, and we offer opinions on the role of human teachers in a multimedia educational environment.

  • Some selected interpretations of Pearson's correlation coefficient are considered. Correlation may be interpreted as a measure of closeness to identity of the standardized variables. This interpretation has a psychological appeal in showing that perfect covariation means identity up to positive linearity. It is well known that |r| is the geometric mean of the two slopes of the regression lines. In the 2 x 2 case, each slope reduces to the difference between two conditional probabilities so that |r| equals the geometric mean of these two differences. For bivariate distributions with equal marginals, that satisfy some additional conditions, a nonnegative r conveys the probability that the paired values of the two variables are identical by descent. This interpretation is inspired by the rationale of the genetic coefficient of inbreeding.

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