Literature Index

This study considers the effectiveness of a "balanced amalgamated" approach to teaching graduate level introductory statistics. Although some research stresses replacing traditional lectures with more active learning methods, the approach of this study is to combine effective lecturing with active learning and team projects. The results of this study indicate that such a balanced amalgamated approach to learning not only improves student cognition of course material, but student morale as well. An instructional approach that combines mini-lectures with in-class active-learning activities appears to be a better approach than traditional lecturing alone for teaching graduate-level students.

The Woods Hole conference of September 1959 was outstanding of its kind as a meeting of about 35 people interested in education - educationists, psychologists, medical men, and mathematicians. The results of the meeting were summarised by J. S. Brunner in a chairman's Report, which, impregnated by his own ideas, evolved into his booklet The Process of Education. In the last decade this work has strongly influenced curriculum development, in particular, in mathematics. Brunner's contribution seems to me of a particular interest for the instruction in stochastics, which is now entering our schools. On the one hand advocates of this subject matter are advancing its fundamental (or central) ideas, on the other hand stress is laid on the importance to tie instruction in stochastics to intuitive experiences. Both points, however, are rarely elaborated or made more concrete. In particular the following questions deserve attention: (a) What would a list of fundamental ideas of stochastical concepts look like? (b) Why should intuition mean so much for stochastics? (c) What does "(stochastic) intuition" mean? (d) How does it develop, and how can it be improved? In the following we will advance some ideas on (a) and will also touch on the other points.

The statistics reform will only be successful if those teaching statistics understand and react to the changing direction of the discipline. To this end, the Mathematical Association of America, in conjunction with the National Science Foundation, administered a series of development workshops for mathematicians teaching introductory statistics courses at the post secondary level. The purpose of these STATS Workshops (Statististical Thinking with Activie Teaching Strategies) is to help mathematics faculty who have no formal teaching in statistics gain the training and knowledge needed to be successful.<br><br>The particpant observer recorded the day-to-day activities and surveyed the attainment of workshop objectives. The participant observer interviewed attendees to bring additional depth to the traditional evaluation and to enhance the clarity of experiences and opinions of the participants.

The purpose of this study was to extend the evaluation of Wise's Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS) scale by examining responses in relation to (a) its factor structure and (b) the correlation of ATS subscale scores with students' grades in statistics courses at several levels of graduate study, students' sex (which was found to be a useful predictor by Woehlke &amp; Leitner, 1980), and scores on measures of basic mathematics and comprehension of statistical terminology.