Literature Index

The Statistical Reasoning Assessment or SRA is one of the first objective instruments developed to assess students? statistical reasoning. Published in 1998 (Garfield, 1998a), it became widely available after the Garfield (2003) publication. Empirical studies applying the SRA by Garfield and co-authors brought forward two intriguing puzzles: the ?gender puzzle?, and the puzzle of ?non-existing relations with course performances?. Moreover, those studies find a, much less puzzling, country-effect. The present study aims to address those three empirical findings. Findings in this study suggest that both puzzles may be at least partly understood in terms of differences in effort students invest in studying: students with strong effort-based learning approaches tend to have lower correct reasoning scores, and higher misconception scores, than students with different learning approaches. In distinction with earlier studies, we administered the SRA at the start of our course. Therefore measured reasoning abilities, correct as well as incorrect, are to be interpreted unequivocally as preconceptions independent of any instruction in our course. Implications of the empirical findings for statistics education are discussed.

This paper seeks to add to a scholarly dialogue regarding the role and value of qualitative techniques in research on learning and using statistics. The paper briefly outlines some of the core assumptions of qualitative research methods, and presents four examples to illustrate selected qualitative methods that are used by educational researchers and service organizations. The discussion emphasizes the need to integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches in research on learners and users of statistics, and suggests that such integration may be needed to study emerging web-based communities of learners and users of statistics.

The main focus of the second Quantitative Literacy Project was to provide secondary teachers with a week-long workshop on the quantitative literacy materials and on techniques to use in teaching those materials. The participants modelled the roles of students and the staff the role of the teacher, using techniques that could be transported to a secondary school classroom. One unique aspect of the workshops was the involvement of professionals statisticians contacted through the local ASA chapters who served as speakers, provided on-site visits and were role models for those interested in statistics as a profession. Another key element was to involve participants in planning, designing and carrying out a project with the guidance of one of the statisticians.

This paper examines the effects of quantitative literacy on the likelihood of employment among young adults in the United States. The data set used in the 1985 Young Adult Literacy Assessment Survey. This survey of persons 21 to 25 years old makes available scores achieved by individuals sampled on a test measuring proficiency in the application of arithmetic skills to practical problems encountered every day. We use these scores as one of a set of variables in a probit model explaining the probability of a person being fully employed. It is found that quantitative literacy skills are a major factor raising the likelihood of full-time employment. Furthermore, low quantitative literacy appears to be critical in explaining the lower probability of employment of young Black Americans relative to Whites.