How do innovative pedagogical techniques improve learning and mastery of introductory statistics? This research study examines proficiency grading and assignment resubmission and compares them to traditional statistical teaching methodology in two introductory statistics classes. The control class received traditional numeric grades, while the experimental class received grades on a three-tiered proficiency ranking and the opportunity to resubmit assignments to increase their proficiency score. Students in the control class scored higher on a common final exam (although not statistically significant), and believed the material was better taught, while students in the experimental class claimed to have learned more and were more satisfied with the grading in the course. Future research will expand data gathering and improve the research design.
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