Proceedings

  • This project is based the epistemological reflection of the teacher about the stochastic' ideas in elementary education. It considers the European term stochastics meaning "probability and statistics". Throughout the study of mistakes and difficulties in learning and experiencing situations that permit the reflection about stochastics, the teaching and resources' methods and its practical use, the teacher will find different ways in its pedagogical practice to widen its professional development. In this world of information that we live, it's important to have the knowledge of the probability of facts to make decisions, to do forecasts and to acquire more ability to think about the uncertainties, because more and more the population has more access to social and economical issues on which the graphics and tables provide the survey results. So, based on these facts, our project has a main question. Which transformations the process of reflection about teaching of statistics and probability will bring to the training and practice of teachers? To answer this question, we are developing a qualitative research, defining the category in analysis of the empirical material, for the analysis of the interviews, the videos and the reports of the participant teachers. There are five teachers and two group coordinators participating in this research. The group has been working for two years and so far the results are very significant. We believe that the conclusions of this project will present relevant contributions not only for the research in statistics education, but also for the practice and development of the teachers.

  • A large experiment, investigating to what extent the use of real data and/or technology and/or pedagogical methods favour student's learning of statistics concepts, was carried out in Italy. The experiment has been monitored both from the side of pupils and teachers. This paper shows the findings from the teachers' point of view, through the analysis of their professional profile, attitudes towards statistics and opinions on its teaching before and after the experiment. The study reveals that, as teachers' training was in mathematics, they taught statistics with a mathematical approach, instead of "teaching statistics as a respectable subject" (Moore, 1992, p.14). The experiment produced a further more significant result, as it produced a substantial modification of teachers' perception of the approach to adopt for teaching statistics.

  • Here we present a report of a study carried out with six high school teachers who participated in a workshop of simulation activities using Fathom -dynamic software for teaching statistics-. At the end of eight weekly work sessions of three hours each, participant teachers were asked to answer a questionnaire related to their opinions about aspects of using the technique of simulation in teaching. We analyzed their answers bearing in mind four general aspects: the role of simulation in teaching; the different steps to follow in a simulation; the complexity of starting situations; and the most important concepts which take part in simulation activities. The results show that teachers deem as important only certain aspects of simulation but neglect others, which are also fundamental in teaching.

  • With ever increasing demands on limited resources, universities are looking for ways to utilise their resources more efficiently. At Swinburne University of Technology, in the statistics component of the psychology course, we have developed a set of materials which allow students to work independently, rather than attending lectures and tutorials. This means fewer students attend tutorials and we can give those that need it more individual assistance. A major concern with this strategy is that students might choose to work independently for inappropriate reasons. This study explores the differences in performance between students who choose to attend lectures and those who opt for independent study, and seeks to identify factors which explain these differences. The research is based on a number of questionnaires collected throughout the semester and analysed in conjunction with the students' results.

  • This paper presents the results from a large, randomized, controlled experiment conducted in the introductory statistics course at Brigham Young University. The purpose of the study was to assess the impact of multimedia lectures on student learning and attitudes. A randomized complete block design was implemented to evaluate the treatment that had two levels: multimedia versus overhead transparencies. Data was collected over four semesters on 5,603 students. Several student characteristics were measured and controlled for in the analyses. Our findings indicate that the multimedia lectures did not improve student learning or attitudes compared to the control group. However, our research also indicates that large, randomized, controlled experiments can be implemented in educational research. We advocate their use as the standard method of evaluation for educational innovations.

  • This paper will discuss the methodological aspect and analysis of in-depth interviews conducted upon lecturers of statistics with regards to the teaching of statistics. The main aim of the interviews was to elicit information from the subjects on matters which are related to difficulties in teaching some statistical concepts and factors that contribute towards students' difficulties in understanding the concepts. The other aim was to identify the existence of any distinct patterns which may arise from the interview conversations using the elements of qualitative data analysis (QDA) via transcription, content analysis and identifying conversation themes and codes. The approach taken to link the conversation themes and codes was also meant to illustrate the application and investigation of the feasibility of using multidimensional scaling within the qualitative data approach.

  • In this exploratory study, we followed approximately 1000 students (Economics and Business) in their freshman year at the University of Maastricht (Netherlands). Those students attended three compulsory courses in Quantitative Methods, each having an important component of statistics. Our population of students exhibits a strong heterogeneity with respect to several aspects: attitude towards and prior knowledge of mathematics and statistics, nationality, type of prior education and the mastery of languages. To study the impact of this heterogeneity on learning introductory statistics, the development of a model of students' learning of introductory statistics was chosen as the goal of the project. In order to develop a relational model, several surveys were taken and data sources were used with regard to the students' characteristics, learning context, students' perceptions and the approaches students took. The major contribution of this study is the broad range of different determinants of learning that is considered, which allows investigation of the interrelation between several factors influencing learning besides studying the direct impact of each factor on learning.

  • This paper proposes a first approach with random situations by using a modeling process within the model of Bernoulli's Urn. This way of learning is accessible to 14-15 years old pupils. The software Cabri-géomètre II is used as an empirical computation environment for simulation of the game of "Franc-Carreau", principal activity proposed to pupils in our didactical engineering.

  • The study investigated the probabilistic misconceptions of Chinese students, and whether selected misconceptions could be overcome through a focused teaching intervention. A questionnaire was given to a 567 Chinese students from grades 6, 8 and 12 and two streams (advanced and ordinary). In addition 64 of the students were interviewed. Fourteen groups of misconceptions were identified. The SOLO taxonomy was used in this study to describe students' hierarchical understanding levels on the concept of probability. It was found that, generally there was no improvement in developmental level from grades 6 and 8, the two grades without any formal probability training. Grade 12 students have a better understanding than the younger students. The results of the activity-based short-term teaching programme with grade 8 students show that even a short intervention can help students overcome some of their misconceptions.

  • Paradoxes have played an important role in the development of mathematics, as they brought about clarification of basic concepts and the introduction of new approaches. Probability theory offers a large variety of Paradoxes. Some of them are (nowadays) interesting mainly from a historical point of view, as the theory has already been adapted to resolve them. Others actually hide common misconceptions in a very subtle and tricky way. Introducing Paradoxes in class carries potential danger: it may result in a feeling of insecurity when the conflict between the mathematical solution and the intuition (or between two seemingly correct mathematical solutions) seems unresolvable. On the other hand, properly introduced, Paradoxes can play a very useful role in the classroom as they serve as leverage to fruitful discussions, and provoke deeper thinking about the (not always intuitive) probabilistic ideas.

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