Relationships among dimensions of statistical knowledge


Book: 
Proceedings of the Third International Conference on Teaching Statistics
Authors: 
Huberty, C. J., Dresden, J., & Bak, B. G.
Editors: 
Vere-Jones, D., Carlyle, S., & Dawkins, B. P.
Category: 
Volume: 
1
Pages: 
456-460
Year: 
1991
Publisher: 
International Statistical Institute
Place: 
Voorburg, Netherlands
Abstract: 

A controversy has arisen concerning the relative merits of conceptually-oriented teaching versus calculation-centered teaching. Marks (1989) maintains that concepts are far more important than computations, and that they can be successfully taught without the related computations. In contrast, Khamis (1989) claims that students cannot truly understand statistical information until they have had experience doing calculations by hand. Both authors present persuasive arguments, but no empirical evidence to support their conclusions. The present paper outlines a study which aimed to fill this gap. First, however, we try to place the controversy into the context of wider cognitive issues.

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