Literature Index

This paper provides examples of students' reflections on learning statistics. The Mathematics Learning Centre, where I teach, offers help to students experiencing difficulty with basic mathematics and statistics courses at the university. The excerpts are drawn from surveys or interviews of these and other students studying statistics at the University of Sydney. Activity theory, which is based on the work of Vygotsky, provides a helpful conceptual model for investigating learning at the university level. From the perspective of activity theory, learning is viewed as a mediated activity in a sociohistorical context. In particular, the way a student monitors and controls the ongoing cognitive activity depends on how that individual reflects on his or her efforts and evaluates success. In Semenov's words, " Thought must be seen as a cognitive activity that involves the whole person" (1978, p. 5). Students' interpretations of their learning tasks and the educational goals for their self-development are discussed within this theoretical framework.

In this age of information technology vast amounts of data are generated from many different processes which necessitate the practice of statistics in some form or other. Many third world students grapple with understanding the subject of Statistics and the success of teaching statistics depends on finding a satisfactory answer to many of the questions asked by the majority of students. This paper highlights the misconceptions that students have about statistics and shows that dispelling the myths and prejudices eases the teaching of the subject matter and the acceptance of statistics as a rewarding career.

This article describes an example which is useful when teaching hypothesis testing in order to highlight the interrelationships that exist among the level of significance, the sample size and the statistical power of a test. The example also allows students to see how what they learn in the classroom directly affects the content of some of the commercials that they watch on television.

A bag of 24 packets of a well-known brand of crisps provides a handy visual (and edible) aid to looking at the syllabus of a basic course in statistics.