Literature Index

The goals of this chapter are (a) to address the need to assess statistical thinking as it occurs in social settings outside the classroom, (b) to suggest a hierarchy for judging outcomes, (c) to provide examples of viable assessment based on items from the media, and (d) to discuss the implications for classroom practice.

The traditional assessment of students' learning in statistics courses has followed the model used for mathematics and many other subject areas; that is time constrained written examinations. In New Zealand a large proportion of statistics assessment is still of this form. In order to determine whether this is the most appropriate form of assessing statistics learning consideration needs to be given to the following: - fundamental differences between the content of statistics and other courses, - the skills required of statistics learners, - the purpose(s) of assessment, and - whether particular forms of assessment advantage or disadvantage some groups of learners. While this paper raises issues related to the first three points above, the major focus is on the last. Performance in the national examinations sat by secondary school students in New Zealand is analysed for gender and ethnic differences in two different forms of assessment: project based internal assessment and traditional written examination.

From 2001-2006 we used a number of approaches to assess how well our first-year students learn<br>statistics and mathematics when introduced to different teaching methods. The topics introduced in<br>their two courses include those found in a standard applied probability and statistics course. For<br>example, descriptive linear regression. Most of these assessments have been based upon analyses of<br>opinions and examination results from the students. This paper reports on designing experiments to<br>determine whether electronic quizzes enhance student learning. A second paper presents the<br>implementation of these experiments and a preliminary analysis of the data from these experiments.

Assessment has become the "buzzword" in academia; a demonstration of criteria used for the assessment of retention of what was learned is now mandated by various accrediting agencies. Whether we want our students to be good users of statistics who make better decisions, or good consumers of statistics who are better informed citizens, we must reflect on how key statistical concepts can be ingrained in the students' knowledge base. This article seeks to address the overall issue of assessing the retention of essential statistical ideas that transcend various disciplines.