By Visruth Srimath Kandali (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) and Julia Aptekar (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) and Spencer Chinn (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo)
Information
Our multi-year, cross-institutional study explores student curiosity as a key component of intrinsic motivation in introductory statistics education. We present our research design for measuring and potentially evoking student curiosity through the Curiosity and Exploration Inventory-II (pre/post), midterm reflection surveys, and periodic open-ended “I Wonder” surveys throughout the course. Drawing on preliminary data, we demonstrate the viability of our methodology and share insights from our rubric development process. Over the past year, we have been iteratively refining our rubric and coding student responses to capture more nuanced types of curiosity. This poster emphasizes our approach to understanding what sparks statistical curiosity and how instructional choices might cultivate it—findings that could transform how we design and teach introductory statistics courses. We analyze data from a primarily undergraduate, four-year university, focusing on introductory statistics courses (approximately 35 students per section) for both majors and non-majors. We administer pre/post surveys, collect midterm reflections, and use daily or weekly “I Wonder” prompts to qualitatively measure students’ curiosity, which we then code using our inductively developed rubric. We also plan to conduct interviews with student volunteers to further explore emerging patterns in students’ curiosity.