Literature Index

This paper discusses reasons for using humor in the statistics classroom. Humor strengthens the relationship between student and teacher, reduces stress, makes a course more interesting, and, if relevant to the subject, may even enhance recall of the material. The authors provide examples of humorous material for teaching students such topics as descriptive statistics, probability and independence, sampling, confidence intervals, hypothesis testing, and regression and forecasting. Also, some references, summarized strategies, and suggestions for becoming more humorous in the classroom are provided.

Hypertext and its more advanced form Hypermedia represent a powerful authoring tool with great potential for allowing statistics teachers to develop documents to assist students in an algorithmic fashion. An introduction to the use of Hypertext is presented, with an example of its use. Hypertext is an approach to information management in which data are stored in a network of nodes, or frames, connected by links. Nodes can contain text, graphics, audio, video, source code, or other forms of data. The designer of the document creates the nodes on a word processor, statistical package, or graphics program; he or she may go forward or backward through the links created. Hypertext documents are easy to use, although the number of levels of linkage should be kept to a minimum for students. Such documents are not as easy to create, requiring the creation of text files, linkage files created with Hypertext software, and graphics files. A sample Hypertext document is described for student learning about hypothesis tests for a single sample containing a parameter measuring the central tendency of the population. It is predicted that, in time, the text for an elementary statistics course will be a Hypertext document. Two sample flowcharts for use in the Hypertext document are provided. (SLD)

Inferential reasoning is a central component of statistics. Researchers have suggested that students should develop an informal understanding of the ideas that underlie inference before learning the concepts formally. This paper presents a hands-on activity that is designed to help students in an introductory statistics course draw informal inferences about a bag of bingo chips and connect these ideas to the formal T-test and confidence interval. This activity is analyzed using a framework and recommendations drawn from the research literature

This paper reports on technological aspects of an ongoing international study in which secondary students engage in authentic data inquiries involving posing, sharing, and critiquing of statistical word problems. This is part of a larger study, which aims to (1) investigate developments in students' statistical understanding and reasoning processes as they engage in authentic data investigations involving data modeling, statistical problem posing, and problem critiquing, (2) foster students' awareness and appreciation of the influence of cultural factors in the statistical understandings of their international peers, (3) investigate the use of Web-based Intranets to enable schools connected to the Internet to conduct collaborative statistical investigations with students from other countries, and (4) use the findings of the study to develop a conceptual model of students growth of statistical understanding. In this paper, we focus on aim #3 and consider our developing experience in using semiprivate sites on the World Wide Web to facilitate activities in which students both publish mathematics problems that they have created and provide structured comments on problems posed by their local or international peers. To date, we have conducted a series of exploratory case studies in classrooms in England, Australia and Canada in which students posed and shared problems involving measures of central tendency (mean, median and mode). The problems were based on the results of an authentic, international dataset which they helped to create. The purpose of this paper is to discuss issues that have emerged in our present application of computer-mediated communication for fostering mathematical problem posing and critiquing. More specifically, we consider the following issues: the emergence of the Intranet design over the initial phase of the research project, the impact of the Intranet design on the effectiveness of computer-mediated communication in the key stages of the project, and the implications for subsequent Intranet designs for networked collaborative problem-posing activities.