Literature Index

Since educational statistics is a core or general requirement of all students enrolled in graduate education programs, the need for high quality student engagement and appropriate authentic learning experiences is critical for promoting student interest and student success in the course. Based in authentic learning theory and engagement theory graduate educational statistics CAPSULES (Community Action Projects for Students Utilizing Leadership and E-based Statistics) engage graduate students in service-learning projects involving managing, conducting, and delivering authentic data-driven research. The community action projects utilizing leadership and e-based statistics skills are spearheaded by a university-based Community Outreach Research and Authentic Learning (CORAL) Center. The graduate educational statistics CAPSULES program includes: (1) restructuring educational statistics courses to include real-world active learning and authentic assessment; (2) providing opportunities for graduate students to engage in team-driven quantitative research prior to the thesis or dissertation experience with projects generated from community agencies/educational institutions; and (3) connecting graduate students with community action projects as research managers, leaders, and presenters. Highlights of initial formative and summative student outcomes are presented relative to specific examples of student-directed CAPSULES. Student outcomes from the CAPSULES program indicate positive increases in graduate students' attitudes toward statistics and research, and students' leadership and project management skills.

We report on a study of the relationship between calculator technology and student learning in two introductory statistics class sections taught by the same instructor at the University of Texas at San Antonio. At the introduction of hypothesis testing and confidence intervals, one class section (A) was given graphing calculators capable of inferential statistics to use for a few weeks. At the same time, the other class section (B) was given non-inferential graphing calculators. Data were collected on all test grades and daily quiz grades for both class sections. The students were allowed to use the inferential calculators on only the examination covering hypothesis tests and confidence intervals and on the final examination. Both sections received the same tests. We found that although use of the calculator with inferential capabilities is associated with improved scores on the inferential examination, the improvement is not significant once we adjust for performance on previous tests. Still, we note that on final examination questions specifically utilizing the calculator inference functions, the two classes perform similarly. In fact, both classes had trouble with "calculations" while at the same time answering "concept" questions fairly well. The inferential calculator did not appear to give students any clear advantage or disadvantage in their performance on examinations.

The effectiveness of simulations for teaching statistical concepts was compared to the effectiveness of a textbook. The variable Medium (simulation versus textbook) and Question specificity (specific versus Non-specific), were manipulated factorially. The subjects consisted of 115 college students. The dependent variable was performance on problems requiring subjects to apply what they learned to ill defined everyday problems. Subjects trained by simulation performed significantly better than those trained with a textbook. subjects in the "specific" condition performed better than those in the "Non-specific" condition, although the difference did not reach conventional levels of significance. these results support the increasing use of simulation in education and training.