Literature Index

Many of the lectures here expressed their opinion that the primary task of statistics departments is to produce truly professional statisticians. However at least a part of the statisticians must have a serious mathematical background especially in probability theory, stochastic processes and mathematical statistics. The new term stochastics is very suitable for these three disciplines. Scientists working in the field of stochastics will be called stochasticians. It is obvious that the stochasticians are educated at the mathematics departments of universities. So, the main problem is how to organize the teaching process for the students in order to produce good statisticians and stochasticians who would be able to solve problems arising in the real world as well as other purely theoretical problems.

The National Council for Teachers of Mathematics have led the way in developing new standards for mathematics instruction and assessment. This paper describes what we call an authentic statistics project for eighth graders using computers for both instruction and assessment purpose.

Providing students with opportunities to find their own databases creates an environment of participation and involvement where students experience what it is to do statistics. Creating their own databases also gives students experience with real world problems. In doing so, students can learn to observe and discuss the influence of missing data and outliers as they occur in day to day situations. The author gives an example of how students at University of Wisconsin dealt with obtaining their own data for Buffon's needle problem, and how they analyzed the data. Suggestions for possible activities for students learning statistics include using statistics to estimate how many words are in an article and strategies for guessing on various kinds of multiple choice tests.

A three stage model was used in developing and evaluating an instructional unit on probability. The focus of this paper is on the first and third stages of the model, both of which depend on the design of ways to identify misconceptions. In previous studies, researchers have used changes in performance on individual items to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional interventions. The instrument used in the present study borrows heavily from earlier research. The instrument differs from previous instruments not in the content of the items but in the way responses to items are analyzed. Pairs of items are designed so that meaningful error patterns can be identified when responses to both items are considered. The identification of error patterns can be identified when responses to both items are considered. The identification of error patterns allows assessment that goes beyond the reporting of gain scores. Once error patterns are identified, an intervention can be evaluated according to the types of misconceptions (i.e., error patterns) that are affected.