Journal Article

  • Japanese Lesson Study is a collaborative approach for teachers to plan, present, observe, and critique classroom lessons. Through the lesson study process, teachers systematically and thoughtfully examine both student learning and their own teaching practices. In addition, the process paves the way for a much broader approach to education research by gathering data about student learning directly in the classroom. By piloting an approach using Japanese Lesson Study principles in an upper division statistics course, we discovered some of the challenges it poses, but also some surprisingly promising results for statistics teaching. This case study should provide others considering this approach with information about the philosophy and methodology involved in the lesson study process as well as some practical ideas for its implementation.

  • Despite considerable research having been done in the area of sex differences in mathematical ability, statistical ability has rarely been the subject of a major research effort. This study focuses on the question of whether there are sex differences in statistical reasoning for college students. Participants included 245 college students in Taiwan and 267 American college students. The Statistical Reasoning Assessment (SRA) was used in this cross-cultural study to assess students' statistical reasoning ability. While the original version of the test was administered to students in the United States, a Chinese version of the instrument was administered to participants in Taiwan. Statistical methods were used to ascertain whether there were mean differences between males and females and whether there was equality between the correlation matrices for males and females. All the analysis were based on both the correct reasoning scores and the misconception scores obtained from the SRA instrument. Results tend to support the general research findings that when sex differences appear, they are in the direction favoring males, particularly in higher cognitive task such as mathematical reasoning. Analysis of the correlation matrices suggests that there are no differences in statistical reasoning between males and females for both countries. However, it should be noted that the results may be due to low item intercorrelations.

  • This article explores a theoretical framework to consider when teaching statistics. It is discussed and illustrated using one innovative approach to teaching using computer simulation methods. This framework can be considered across many different disciplines and age levels.

  • The teaching and learning of statistics has impacted the curriculum in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education. Because of this growing movement to expand and include statistics into all levels of education, there is also a considerable interest in how to teach statistics. For statistics concepts that tend to be very difficult or abstract, many researchers have recommended using computer simulation methods (CSMs), but there have been very few empirically and theoretically based studies related to student achievement using these methods. The purpose of this study was to determine whether using CSMs enhanced student understanding of abstract statistics concepts for students enrolled in an introductory course. Based on a theoretical framework of how students learn statistics, the preliminary results of this study indicate some evidence that these methods may improve student understanding of abstract statistics concepts.

  • The emergence of a reform movement in statistics education has influenced the teaching and learning of statistics over the past few decades. The teaching of statistics concepts and courses in elementary and secondary education as well as the implementation of technology into the statistics classroom are important changes involved in this movement. Considering the changes in instruction and learning over the past few years, the purpose of this paper was to describe the attitudes of students enrolled in a reformed course. Although previous research has suggested that student attitudes toward statistics have been negative, the overall results suggested that students in introductory statistics courses today have more positive attitudes toward statistics than negative. Important variables related to statistics achievement such as mathematics ability, statistics experience, student confidence, and gender continue to influence student attitudes. Implications from the findings of this study might suggest that the collaborative effort from researchers and teachers to improve the teaching and learning of statistics over the past few years reveals optimistic results.

  • Although there has been a considerable amount of work evaluating the effects of different (non-traditional) instructional styles, inquiries into students?preferences of instructional style have been few. From 1998-2001, we surveyed introductory statistics students regarding various aspects of their class preferences, especially the teaching style they prefer. We analyzed the data for the purpose of seeing if there has been an increasing trend in preference towards non-traditional methods. Our results are inconclusive (p = 0.35) about the presence of such a trend. However, the overall proportion of students preferring non-traditional classes is higher than students preferring traditional classes (p < 0.001). We also used the survey data to investigate the possible attributes that relate to preference. Using Stepwise Logistic regression (with alpha = 0.10) we find that the students?ideal class-size, the number of years since they graduated from high school, the perceived learning styles of the students, and the attitudes of students towards the use of visual aids and hands-on activities are all significantly related to the teaching style preferences of students.

  • A statistics project for grades 9-12 in which students analyze and interpret statistics in a newspaper is presented. The first part of the project involves students examining the depiction of statistics in the San Jose Mercury News for several months and pinpointing recurring topics or themes in the content of the articles presenting the statistics. In the second part, students make inferences from the statistics and address the ramifications of the information. The use of real-world statistics in the project allows teachers to show students that they are willing to help them solve complicated and disturbing issues.

  • Expresses concern over the current mathematics education of students and discusses mathematics as a language, including: reading critically, mathematical metaphors, mathematical literature, the nature of knowledge, and how one becomes mathematically literate.

  • We focus on the problem of ignoring statistical independence. A binomial experiment is used to determine whether judges could match, based on looks alone, dogs to their owners. The experimental design introduces dependencies such that the probability of a given judge correctly matching a dog and an owner changes from trial to trial. We show how this dependence alters the probability of a successful match of dog to owner, and thus alters the expected number of successful matches and the variance of this expected quantity. Finally, we show that a false assumption of independence that results in incorrect probability calculations changes the probability of incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis (i.e. the Type I error).

  • Mathematics lecturers have long expressed concern about their students' poor mathematical background and the effect this has on performance in first mathematics courses at university level. This article explores a similar concern about students' numeracy in a statistics course for psychologists.

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