The purpose of this study was to examine how group composition and gender influences the learning of statistics for eighth grade mathematics students. Students participated in an extended grup project where they designed a research question, collected, analyzed, and interpreted data using the computer. Same-gender mixed ability groups were randomly assigned to two exemplar conditions (text vs. video and text). Assessment criteria were described to students prior to their project development through exemplar conditions, video and text was thought to be more explict. An Analysis of Variance of Condition (text or text and video) by Gender (male or female) by Test (pre, post) revealed no condition effect, but females performed higher than males on a post-test of statistical knowledge. Gender differences were also noted in journal keeping. Implications of these results are discussed.
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