Literature Index

Displaying 1071 - 1080 of 3326

  • Factors affecting probabilistic judgments in children and adolescents

    Author(s):
    Fischbein, E., Nello, M. S., & Marino, M. S.
    Year:
    1991
    Abstract:
    Six hundred and eighteen pupils, enrolled in elementary and junior-high-school classes (Pisa, Italy) were asked to solve a number of probability problems. The main aim of the investigation has been to obtain a better understanding of the origins and nature of some probabilistic intuitive obstacles. A linguistic factor has been identified: It appears that for many children, the concept of "certain events" is more difficult to comprehend than that of "possible events". It has been found that even adolescents have difficulties in detaching the mathematical structure from the practical embodiment of the stochastic situation. In problems where numbers intervene, the magnitude of the numbers considered has an effect on their probability; bigger numbers are more likely to be obtained than smaller ones. Many children seem to be unable to solve probability questions, because of their inability to consider the rational structure of a hazard situation: "chance" is, by itself, an equalizing factor of probabilities. Positive intuitive capacities have also been identified; some problems referring to compound events are better solved when addressed in a general form than when addressed in a particular way.

  • Factors Affecting Student Decision-Making On Statistics Projects

    Author(s):
    Lavigne, N. C. & Lajoie, S. P.
    Editors:
    Phillips, B.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    Statistics has become an integral part of individuals' formal and everyday lives. Experiences that help learners make sense of statistical information are needed so that they can make informed decisions. The view of statistics as a decision-making tool can be emphasized in project-based environments, where students investigate problems that require formulating questions and collecting, analyzing, and representing data to address these questions. Producing investigations in collaboration with peers and presenting results to classmates require that students articulate the understanding that formed the basis of particular design decisions. We found that decisions in this context can be mitigated by factors (e.g., efficiency and social influences) that circumvent the appropriate application of principles (e.g., sampling) in the discipline or practices established in the classroom (e.g., use of criteria to assess peer projects) even though students understand them.
    Location:
    http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/1/6d2_lavi.pdf

  • Factors affecting undergraduate performance in statistics: A review of the literature

    Author(s):
    Zimmer, J. C., & Fuller, D. K.
    Year:
    1996
    Abstract:
    This paper reviews the literature on factors affecting students' performance in undergraduate statistics courses for the social sciences. Factors studied include anxiety, attitude, computer experience, and gender identity.

  • Factors Considered by Secondary Students When Judging the Validity of a Given Statistical Generalization

    Author(s):
    Hanan Ayoub Innabi
    Editors:
    Carmen Batanero
    Year:
    2007
    Abstract:
    This study investigated the factors that 12th grade students in the United Arab Emirates take<br>into consideration when judging the validity of a given statistical generalization, particularly, in terms of<br>the sample size and sample selection bias. The sample consisted of 360 students who had not studied<br>sampling yet. Results show that a small percentage of the students take the sample size and selection bias<br>into consideration properly. Many students based their judgment on their personal beliefs regardless of the<br>properties of the selected sample. This study identified some pre-teaching misconceptions that students<br>have with regard to sampling. Such misconceptions include 'any sample represents the population', and,<br>'any sample does not represent the population'.
    Location:
    http://www.iejme.com/032007/d4.pdf

  • Factors considered by secondary students when judging the validity of a given statistical generalization.

    Author(s):
    Innabi, H.
    Editors:
    Rossman, A., &amp; Chance, B.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    This study investigated the factors that 12th grade students in United Arab Emirates take into consideration when judging the validity of a given statistical generalization, in particular, in terms of the sample size and sample selection bias. The sample consisted of 360 students who had not studied sampling yet. Results show that a small percentage of the students take the sample size and selection bias into consideration properly. Many students based their judgment on their personal beliefs regardless of the properties of the selected sample. This study identified some pre- teaching misconceptions that students have with regard to 'sampling'. Such misconceptions are 'any sample represents the population', and, 'any sample does not represent the population'.
    Location:
    http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/17/2B1_INNA.pdf

  • Factors in statistics learning: Developing a dispositional attribution model to describe differences in the development of statistical proficiency.

    Author(s):
    Kaplan, J. J.
    Editors:
    Treisman, P. U.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    This study sought to create a dispositional attribution model to describe differences in the development of statistical proficiency. To what extent can differences in psychological dispositions explain differences in the development of statistical proficiency and, in particular, students' understanding of hypothesis testing? A framework to describe statistical proficiency was created. Study subjects were undergraduates who have taken an algebra-based statistics course. The three emergent themes found in student discussions of hypothesis testing were, how students consider the experimental design factors of a hypothesis test situation, what types of evidence students find convincing, and what students understand about p-values.
    Location:
    http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/dissertations/06.Kaplan.Dissertation.pdf

  • Factors influencing student performance in statistics

    Author(s):
    Cotts, J. W.
    Year:
    1994
    Abstract:
    This report discusses how factors such as sex, major, mathematics background, and dominant learning style can affect student performance in statistics. It is almost unarguable that the introductory statistics course is the most widely feared course on most university campuses. Dropout and failure rates are extremely high. Students come into the course with low expectation of success., and I have often wondered and talked with colleagues about this fear and lack of success. Can we identify any factors that affect our students' performance in the "Introduction to Statistics" course? Can we determine "what makes a student's statistical clock tick?" Or perhaps more precisely, "what prevents a student's statistical clock from ticking?" Do factors such as sex, major [field of study], class [freshman (first year), sophomore (second year), junior (third year), senior (fourth year)] or mathematics background have a bearing on student performance? For the above factors, no big surprise were found. But another factor, suggested to me by a colleague in the Psychology Department produced a rather stunning result. That factor is the student's dominant learning style.

  • Factors Influencing the Development of Middle School Students' Interest in Statistical Literacy

    Author(s):
    Colin Carmichael, Rosemary Callingham, Jane Watson, and Ian Hay
    Year:
    2009
    Abstract:
    This paper reviews factors that contribute to the development of middle school students' interest in statistical literacy and its motivational influence on learning. To date very little research has specifically examined the influence of positive affect such as interest on learning in the middle-school statistics context. Two bodies of associated research are available: interest research in a mathematics education context and attitudinal research in a tertiary statistics context. A content analysis of this literature suggests that interest development in middle school statistics will be the result of a complex interplay of classroom influences and individual factors such as: students' knowledge of statistics, their enjoyment of statistics and their perceptions of competency in relation to the learning of statistics.
    Location:
    http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications.php?show=serjarchive

  • Factors influencing the psychology student in dealing with statistics courses.

    Author(s):
    Yunis, F. A.
    Editors:
    Rossman, A., &amp; Chance, B.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    Psychology students usually rate Statistics courses among the most difficult. The objective of the present study is to explore some aspects of the difficulties encountered by Psychology students in studying statistics and how these difficulties relate to statistics anxiety. A questionnaire measuring Psychology students' evaluation of the level of difficulty of the statistics courses studied; together with their opinions concerning the reasons for these difficulties was administered to a sample of 152 female undergraduate Psychology students at Cairo University. In addition, a measure of statistics anxiety was also used. Difficulties reported by students were in five categories in the following order: course content, teaching, examinations, relevance of statistics, and student characteristics. The perceived level of difficulty and abstraction were related to attitudes and opinions towards statistics and to the grades of the previous year.
    Location:
    http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/17/9B3_YUNI.pdf

  • Factors related to attitudes toward statistics: A study with a Spanish sample

    Author(s):
    Auzmendi, E.
    Year:
    1991
    Abstract:
    A multifactorial scale of attitudes toward statistics was developed, and factors related to attitudes toward statistics (objective and subjective mathematics background, anxiety, spatial ability, expectations, motivation, attitutdes toward computers, teacher and course evaluation, sex and sex-role stereotypes, and major) were investigated for college students in Spain. Regression analyses determined predictors of attitudes toward statistics. Predictive factors before the course included expectations of success and failure; attitudes toward computers; objective and subjective background; motivation; and state anxiety. Predictive factors at the end of the course included: expectations of success and failure; subjective and objective background; level of the subject; and teacher and course evaluation.

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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