On Conceptual Analysis as the Primary Qualitative Approach to Statistics Education Research in Psychology


Authors: 
Agnes Petocz and Glenn Newbery
Volume: 
9(2)
Pages: 
online
Year: 
2010
Publisher: 
Statistics Education Research Journal
URL: 
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/serj/SERJ9(2)_Petocz_Newbery.pdf
Abstract: 

Statistics education in psychology often falls disappointingly short of its goals. The<br><br>increasing use of qualitative approaches in statistics education research has extended<br><br>and enriched our understanding of statistical cognition processes, and thus facilitated<br><br>improvements in statistical education and practices. Yet conceptual analysis, a<br><br>fundamental part of the scientific method and arguably the primary qualitative<br><br>method insofar as it is logically prior and equally applicable to all other empirical<br><br>research methods - quantitative, qualitative, and mixed - has been largely overlooked.<br><br>In this paper we present the case for this approach, and then report results from a<br><br>conceptual analysis of statistics education in psychology. The results highlight a<br><br>number of major problems that have received little attention in standard statistics<br><br>education research

The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education