Proceedings

  • From 2001-2006 we used a number of approaches to assess how well our first-year students learn<br>statistics and mathematics when introduced to different teaching methods. The topics introduced in<br>their two courses include those found in a standard applied probability and statistics course. For<br>example, descriptive linear regression. Most of these assessments have been based upon analyses of<br>opinions and examination results from the students. This paper reports on designing experiments to<br>determine whether electronic quizzes enhance student learning. A second paper presents the<br>implementation of these experiments and a preliminary analysis of the data from these experiments.

  • Statistical literacy assessment tools developed in one part of the world or for a particular constituency<br>may not be the best tools for others. The wording, the level, the context, the objects mentioned may be<br>foreign and thus render the assessment tool useless. This is a predicament that the countries involved in<br>the CensusAtSchool and other international projects know very well. Statistical literacy instruments<br>must be customized and therefore the tools to assess statistical literacy must be customized too. The<br>International Statistical Literacy Project of the IASE contains a variety of learning and assessment<br>tools developed by many different international sources for a variety of groups. In this paper and<br>related documents, we illustrate with examples how to take advantage of the numerous resources in the<br>ISLP web page to build tools to assess statistical literacy suitable for different models and<br>constituencies in the statistics spectrum.

  • The GAISE College report suggested that teachers assess statistical literacy by students "interpreting<br>or critiquing articles in the news." Media stories typically present summary statistics to support nonstatistical<br>conclusions. Summary statistics require hypothetical thinking which in turn requires drill<br>in factual exercises involving deductive right-wrong answers. This paper presents a wide range of<br>deductive exercises that may help students develop the hypothetical thinking needed to deal with the<br>fact that all statistics are socially constructed. This paper presents 130 different topics involving factbased<br>exercises with objective answers. Of these, 50% are numerical, 30% are number-related and<br>20% are non-numeric. Selected examples are presented. At least half of these exercises have been<br>used by students in a web-based format. These exercises are classified by topics in traditional<br>research statistics and in statistical literacy.

  • Since quantitative research skills become more and more relevant for non academic professions, the<br>four courses research curriculum at the department of educational sciences of Ghent University aims<br>to deliver competent consumers of statistics who possess quantitative research skills and attitudes<br>needed to produce and use research in their professional careers. This study focuses on the impact of<br>authentic assessment with group project work on student self-efficacy beliefs and attitudes towards<br>statistics. About 180 students, enrolled at the fourth course, are engaged in collaborative project work<br>during 8 weeks on a given data-base. Students' perceptions of self-efficacy, attributions for academic<br>success, assessment expectations and attitude towards quantitative research as a field and as a course<br>are measured after the presentations of their projects. The control group consists of students enrolled<br>at the third course.

  • This paper begins with a description of several learning goals of the two-course Introductory Statistics<br>sequence for undergraduate business students at the International University of Monaco, and then<br>focuses on the goals of communicating statistical results and becoming critical consumers of statistical<br>information. As our students are business students, we aim for them to become both producers and<br>literate consumers of statistical analysis. In line with reform movements in Statistics Education and the<br>GAISE guidelines, we are working to implement teaching strategies and assessment methods that align<br>instruction and assessment with our learning goals. One of the main instructional tools we use is group<br>projects with elements of peer and self assessment. This paper describes how peer evaluations are<br>carried out, how they are summarized and why we believe that explicitly incorporating these self and<br>peer assessments has improved student learning both in communicating and in consuming statistical<br>information.

  • In this paper, an assessment project conducted in a class for future middle school teachers in statistics<br>is presented. The project consisted of designing and presenting a lesson that addressed a statistical<br>concept taught in middle school following the Japanese Lesson Study model. Future teachers were<br>asked to identify the big ideas covered, its connections to previous and future content by aligning the<br>lesson to state, national standards, and the GAISE recommendations, make predictions about students<br>misunderstandings based on readings about statistics education research, propose activities or<br>procedures on how to teach the concept, and create an evaluation plan. Lessons were presented in pairs<br>to the entire class and the "best" lesson presented to actual 5th graders at a local middle school. Final<br>reflections and evaluations from prospective teachers are discussed.

  • The National Institute of Study and Research of the Ministry of Education in Brazil states that there are<br>169 Schools of Dentistry in 2006. At the School of Dentistry of Ara&ccedil;atuba, UNESP, Brazil, this<br>Biostatistics discipline is included in the course with 90 credit hours a year. An interrelationship with<br>other professors has been developed for some years using database of different dental fields. The aim<br>of this research is to get acquainted with the teaching of Biostatics at schools of dentistry in Brazil. The<br>methodology applied was to send the questionnaire to all the coordinators of the courses. As for the<br>result of 76 questionnaires answered, 45 stated the inclusion of Biostatistics in their program studies.<br>Only in 3 schools Biostatistics is taught all over the year in "61 to 90" hours. The conclusion is that the<br>teaching of Biostatistics must be incentivated in all schools of dentistry in Brazil.

  • PhD students and others from all kinds of disciplines have the need for statistical learning and<br>understanding in common. For that reason, research courses in research method and biostatistics are<br>open for all kinds of participants, which mean that a large variety of applied topics are represented in<br>each course. The participants are commonly involved in the research process on different stages, some<br>of them having only a research topic, others have collected all data. Furthermore there is also a<br>variation in opinion about statistics, not regarding the need for statistics but the concerns about the<br>demand for mathematical skills etc. The heterogeneity of the participants' research fields and<br>experience in research is a real challenge in teaching but also in assessment of learning. However, a<br>common issue is that all participants are highly motivated as they need knowledge and understanding<br>in statistical thinking and literacy. The aim of this paper is to present the experiences of an<br>examination approach in which the participants get the opportunity to formulating their own<br>examination tasks based on own research problems and to solve them. This approach not only<br>improved the participants' learning and understanding, but good statistical practice was also<br>implemented the research group as a whole.

  • Owing to the shortage of didactic preparation which teachers possess after their academic formation,<br>the novices are obliged to learn at a very quick pace the functioning of the dynamic school. With so<br>much novelty, evaluation stands out in the broad sense and also as the receiver of all information. In<br>this paper we examine the method of work by means of an example, in projects of statistical education<br>and their evaluation through a trainee portfolio analysing the information obtained and using it as a<br>source to regulate the inter-action in the classroom. This will help us to appreciate the grade of<br>knowledge acquired by the students in certain concepts of statistics proposed in the Spanish curriculum<br>for students from 15-16 years in obligatory secondary education.

  • Several researchers have recommended the inclusion of writing exercises in statistics courses. This<br>paper describes the initiation of a course designed to provide statistics students with experience in<br>writing about statistics ideas and results. The curriculum for the new course specifies the procedure for<br>the course, but leaves the statistics content open. Assessment of an "experience" course like this is<br>quite different from assessment of a "statistical techniques" course. A principal aim of the course is to<br>improve students' ability to explain statistical techniques verbally. The process of verbalization is<br>helpful in promoting a deeper understanding of techniques already introduced in earlier courses.<br>This paper describes the strategies used to adapt assessment to this new kind of statistics course. A<br>protocol for marking revised reports as well as checking for authorship is described, as are the<br>component weightings for student grades in the course.

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