Unpublished Manuscript

  • Performance based assessments of statistical thinking provide teachers with a window to students' conceptual development. With this aim in mind, we examined the performance of a pair of fourth/fifth-grade students working collaboratively on a probabilistic assessment task developed by the California Department of Education. To account for student performance, we developed a cognitive model of the knowledge guiding student performance. Using this cognitive model, we revised the assessment to provide opportunities for assisted performance. We believe that performance assessments of statistical thinking should be designed with ways to assist performance, a view consistent with visions of teaching and learning as assisted performance.

  • This paper describes a computer-based learning environment for teaching descriptive statistics to eighth grade mathematics students. Using computers as a platform for teaching statistics can promote interest and help learners overcome their inhibitions about statistics. An instructional program, Discovering Statistics, was developed using Hypercard to motivate learners and to promote statistical understanding. Concepts are situated in concrete, real life contexts and the meaning of such concepts are modeled in examples that reflect the statistical problem solving process. Text, graphics, sound, animation, and computer screen recordings are used in various degrees to provide learners with multiple representations that further situate and model instruction.

  • Statistics are pervasive in our society yet the understanding of statistics has remained the domain of a select few. Although the majority of the literature has focused on the adult learner, there is a movement towards teaching statistics to childern. This paper addresses the ways in which statistics has been examined in the elementary and secondary schools in terms of content, readiness to learn, pedagogy, and assessment. We conclude with a proposal for how a cognitive apprenticeship model can be developed from the empirical research findings to build more effective instructional and assessment methods for statistics education. Further empirical work may highlight other components of statistical proficiency that should be modeled for learners.

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