Literature Index

Displaying 2331 - 2340 of 3326
  • Author(s):
    Pereira-Mendoza, L., & Mellor, J.
    Editors:
    Vere-Jones, D., Carlyle, S., & Dawkins, B. P.
    Year:
    1991
    Abstract:
    This paper will report some of the findings of a study of grade four and grade six students' understanding of the information conveyed by bar graphs. The total study examined the effects of various characteristics of graphical displays on students' ability to read, interpret, and predict from such displays, and discusses the results within Davis's Frame Theory.
  • Author(s):
    Grant, T. S., Nathan, M. J.
    Year:
    2007
    Abstract:
    Confidence intervals are an attractive means of conveying experiemental results, as they contain a considerable amount of information in a concise format. Two competing metaphors that arise from students' speech and gestures during interviews are examined for their impact on understanind, statistical problem solving, and future learning of mathematics. In the Changing Ring Aroung a Fixed Point metaphor, confidence intervals are moving disks of various diameters covering a fixed but unknown point, like pitching horseshoes of varying widths to capture a fixed stake. Key to this correct conceptual metaphor is that the interval is a property of a sample but not of the population. Here, the diameter of the disk (i.e., the length of the confidence interval) changes from sample to sample, while the location of the stake (i.e., the population paramet, or population mean) is fixed across samples, but generally unknown. In contrast, the Changing Point on a Fixed Disk metaphor conceptualizes confidence intervals as fixed-diameter disks onto which changing points are placed. In this incorrect metaphor, the population parameter can change from sample to sample. The interval is of fixed length and each experiment results in placing a new parameter somwhere onto the fixed-diameter disk. One possible source of this second metaphor is a suspected confusion between acceptance regions in hypothesis testing and confidence intervals, which tend to be taught in close proximity to one another in the statistics textbooks. The Changing Point on a Fixed Disk metaphor will generally support a misinterpretation of the confidence interval that leads to inaccurate problem solving. By better understanding students' mental representations of confidence intervals, and appealing to the metaphors they convey, we can hope to improve both statistics instruction and educational researchers' uses of statistical tests.
  • Author(s):
    Mickelson, W. T., & Haseman, A.
    Year:
    1998
    Abstract:
    This research examines an implementation of an activity-based constructivist perspective to teach the concept of a sampling distribution of a statistic. A correct conception and understanding of the sampling distribution of a statistic is crucial for students to be able to understand and correctly interpret hypothesis tests and confidence intervals. In particular, a comparison is made between this constructivist method of instruction and a traditional transmission mode of instruction in terms of student attainment of the concept of sampling distributions. In addition, qualitative research methods were employed to gain comparative data and extensive descriptive information on learning outcomes of students involved in the constructivist/reform instructional method. In terms of an overall empirical measure of student understanding of sampling distributions, the activity-based constructivist method implemented here, promoted a deeper and more complete understanding. Such a test, however, obscures an interesting phenomenon, the activity-based constructivist strategy, counter to typical constructivist claims, does not promote conceptual understanding for all students. Qualitative analysis seems to indicate a very complex interaction concerning the epistemology the student brings to the class, the connection between the students' epistemology and the epistemology inherent in constructivist instructional methods, the content of the activity, prior educational experiences, and the social/academic atmosphere of the class/institution.
  • Author(s):
    delMas, B., & Liu, Y.
    Editors:
    Lovett, M. C., & Shah, P.
    Year:
    2007
  • Author(s):
    Yáñez, G.
    Editors:
    Phillips, B.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    This paper reports some difficulties and strategies the students have in solving conditional probability problems with computer simulation. The difficulties are related to programming in the software used and with the trend of the relative frequencies graphic representation when the number of cases increases. The main strategy for estimation was taking the last value of the relative frequencies as the requested probability.
  • Author(s):
    Biehler, R
    Editors:
    Garfield, J. B. & Burrill, G.
    Year:
    1997
    Abstract:
    In this paper, I will report and summarize some preliminary results of two ongoing studies. The aim is to identify problem areas and difficulties of students in elementary data analysis based on preliminary results from the two ongoing studies. The general idea of the two projects is similar. Students took a course in data analysis where they learned to use a software tool, used the tool during the course, and worked on a data analysis project with this tool at the end of the course. The course covered elementary data analysis tools, such as variables and variable types, box plots, frequency tables and graphs, two-way frequency tables, summary measures (median, mean, quartiles, interquartile range, range), scatterplots, and line plots. The grouping of data and the comparison of distributions in the subgroups defined by a grouping variable was an important idea related to studying the dependence of two variables. The methods for analyzing dependencies differed according to the type of variables: for example, scatterplots were used in the case of two numerical variables, and two-way frequency tables and related visualizations were used in the case of two categorical variables.
  • Author(s):
    Inzunza, S.
    Editors:
    Rossman, A., & Chance, B.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    This paper reports results the main errors and difficulties experienced by a group of eleven university students when solving problems of sampling distributions by means of computer simulation using Fathom software (Finzer et. al, 2002). The main difficulties were the formulation of the population model, the definition of the statistics to be calculated in each sample and the definition of the intervals to calculate the probabilities. It was not necessary to carry out some of the long processes of the pencil and paper environment which are the source of several mistakes and difficulties. It was also possible to facilitate the interpretation of some results such as the proportions of cases of interest out of the total of possible cases.
  • Author(s):
    Earley, M. A.
    Year:
    2007
    Abstract:
    The purpose of this phenomenological study was to talk to students about their experiences taking introductory statistics. The author met with eleven students individually for four interviews throughout the semester, followed by a member-checking focus group during the last week of classes. One of the most salient themes to emerge was the students' reliance on their instructor for feedback about performance, directions on taking notes, and the creation of a classroom environment that motivated them to study. As part of the phenomenological tradition, the author presents his own reflections based on these students' comments. Conclusions include the encouragement of instructors to be more mindful of students' reactions to course content, and suggestions for developing a more learner-centered learning environment.
  • Author(s):
    Baglin, James; Bedford, Anthony; Bulmer, Michael
    Year:
    2013
    Abstract:
    Course projects have been argued to help develop students’ statistical thinking, but implementing authentic and realistic course projects still presents major challenges. This paper evaluated students’ experiences and perceptions of using an online simulated virtual environment, known as the Island, for implementing major course projects within an online masters level introductory statistics course. The use of the Island aimed to overcome significant practical and ethical constraints imposed on project-based work in online courses. The project required students to answer a self-posed research question by gathering and analysing data using methods covered in the course. The project was divided into two parts, a mid-semester proposal and an end of semester online presentation. Following completion of the projects, forty-two students responded to a questionnaire which rated their level of agreement to three aspects of using the Island: engagement, ease of use and contributes to understanding. Students were also asked to provide qualitative comments and five students participated in semi-structured interviews. Qualitative feedback was analysed to help explain the results from the quantitative questionnaire. In conclusion, perceptions of the use of the Island for project-based assessment were very positive. Qualitative feedback provided insight into how the Island-based projects may help to develop students’ statistical thinking.
  • Author(s):
    Jones, G. A.. Mooney, E. S., Langrall, C. W. & Thornton, C. A.
    Editors:
    Phillips, B.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    Our paper describes a suite of studies involving students' statistical thinking in Grades 1 through 8. In our key studies (Jones et al., 2000, Mooney, in press), we validated Frameworks that characterised students' thinking on four processes: describing, organizing, representing, and analyzing and interpreting data. These studies showed that the students' thinking was consistent with the four cognitive levels postulated in a general developmental model. We also report on two teaching experiments, with primary students (Jones et al., 2001; Wares et al., 2000) that used the Framework to inform instruction. Teaching experiment results showed that children produced fewer idiosyncratic descriptions of data, possessed intuitive knowledge of center and spread and were constrained in analysis and interpretation by knowledge of data context.

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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

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