Literature Index

Displaying 2831 - 2840 of 3326
  • Author(s):
    Gnaldi, M.
    Editors:
    Goodall, G.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    Mathematics lecturers have long expressed concern about their students' poor mathematical background and the effect this has on performance in first mathematics courses at university level. This article explores a similar concern about students' numeracy in a statistics course for psychologists.
  • Author(s):
    Mayer, A. M.
    Year:
    1999
    Abstract:
    This paper begins by summarizing the research on attitudes toward and anxiety about statistics, distinguishing between studies in the two areas. Next, a research project that explores the relationship between attitudes toward statistics and a particular instructional method is described. A discussion of the results is followed by implications and suggestions for future research.<br>There are three main questions that this study addresses.<br>1. Are there differences in attitudes toward statistics for students in classes that use multimedia software, other software, or no technology?<br>2. Are there differences in how students in these settings view the role of technology in doing statistics?<br>3. Are there gender differences in attitudes toward statistics and views of technology in doing statistics?
  • Author(s):
    Cazorla, I. M.
    Editors:
    Ferreira de Brito, M. R.
    Year:
    2002
    Abstract:
    This thesis aims to analyze factors that determine success when reading statistical graphics, based on Krutetskii's mathematical ability theory and Pinker's graphical comprehension theory. 814 undergraduate students attending Statistical courses were investigated. Six instruments were used: a questionnaire; two attitudes scale towards Statistics and Mathematics; and mathematical, statistics, and verbal aptitude tests. Findings show that success when reading statistical graphics lie on the understanding of the statistical concept, level of knowledge of graphics, visual-pictorial ability, and gender. Male students show more positive attitudes, and higher scores at cognitive tests, except at the verbal aptitude test. Instruction also shows to play a significant role on the development of statistical and graphic abilities.
  • Author(s):
    Gani, J.
    Editors:
    Grey, D. R., Holmes, P., Barnett, V., &amp; Constable, G. M.
    Year:
    1983
    Abstract:
    It is my intention to demonstrate in a very pragmatic way that statistics is a subject of vital importance; it enters substantially into the quantitative content of many (if not all) other professional studies. Statistical information is pervasive: a detailed analysis of The New York Times newspaper for Saturday 22 May 1982 will leave us in little doubt of this fact. The intelligent reading of such a newspaper, or of any other current information material, therefore makes a basic grounding in statistics essential for all citizens. This premise leads very naturally to a discussion of what a common core of statistical training should consist of, and how it might best be imparted to students in schools and colleges throughout the world.
  • Author(s):
    Kasonga, R. A.
    Abstract:
    The reasoning behind the theory of testing of hypothesis is that if a sample does not resemble the characteristics of the population specified by the null hypothesis, then the null hypothesis is rejected. In this paper I draw a parallel between this reasoning and the 'representativeness heuristic.' I claim that the widely accepted view that this heuristic is a misconception in probability is a result of mixing-up the concepts of likelihood and probability on the part of statistics education researchers. While the concept of likelihood is very intuitive and comes naturally to people, the concept of probability is abstract and normally requires formal training.
  • Author(s):
    Friel, S. N.
    Abstract:
    Data analysis and statistics have emerged as major topics in primary and secondary (K-12) school mathematics curricula during the 1900's (NCTM, 1989; NCTM, 2000). Statistics - a discipline addresses primarily at the post-secondary level prior to the Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathamatics (NCTM, 1989( - has lacked definition at the K-12 levels. The lack of clarity about what content to address has resulted in initial work focusing on how we might take more traditional statistics and translate the content for use with younger students. However, instructional practices have not been well defined. Increased attention has been given by researchers and curriculum developers to setting better directions for what we want K-12 students to know and be able to do with respect to data analysis and statistics and to defining the nature of instruction needed to support these directions.More recently, the interaction of technology with efforts to redefine both the content and instructional practices regarding data analysis and statistics in K-12 has provided new directions. Educational technology affords us a greater variety of strategies for teaching statistics and, at the same time, offers us new ways of doing statistics (Garfield & Burrill, 1997). Today, computers, software, and the Internet are essential tools for practice in this domain. The role of research must be addressed now, and the opportunity for defining and teaching a new content area with this kind of technological support must be grounded in research as this content is incorporated into school curricula.This chapter provides an overview related to this need by addressing the following questions:(1) What do we know about the content of data analysis and statistics to be developed at different levels, K-12?(2) In what ways can technology tools enhance current and new directions in teaching and learning data analysis and statistics?(3) What is the role of empirical research in clarifying the interactions between software development and use and the teaching and learning trajectories K-12 in data analysis and statistics?(4) What are the needs and directions that can help frame a research agenda?
  • Author(s):
    Giambalvo, O., Milito, A. M., &amp; Oliveri, A. M.
    Editors:
    Rossman, A., &amp; Chance, B.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    The aim of the paper is to analyse the results of a performance test, created to evaluate how well a group of middle school pupils learned statistics, using multilevel analysis. The results show the importance of the classroom/teacher and the school on the learning process.
  • Author(s):
    delMas, R. C., &amp; Bart, W. M.
    Year:
    1987
    Abstract:
    The differential effect of two activity-based instructional treatments on subjects' concepts of probability was investigated. The concepts of interest were a classical/frequentist interpretation of probability and three misconceptions cited in the literature: law of averages, law of small numbers and availability. All subjects completed a workbook which presented a long-run frequency interpretation of probability. After completion of the workbook, subjects participated in a probability-matching activity where the task was to predict correctly the outcomes for 100 coin tosses of a fair coin. Half the subjects ( the No-Evaluation group) recorded only the outcome of each toss but not their guess. After the 100 tosses, No-Evaluation subjects were presented statements which pointed out congruities between the observed outcomes and the theory presented in the workbook. Evaluation subjects recorded both their guess and the outcome of each toss. In addition to the same statements presented to the No-Evaluation subjects, Evaluation subjects were asked questions which pointed out incongruitities between their recorded data and the three misconceptions. Evaluation subjects showed an increase in classical/frequentist responses from pretest to posttest. In contrast, No-Evaluation subjects showed an increase in law of averages responses with a consequent decrease in classical/ frequentist responses. These findings support the idea that misconceptions formed before or during instruction can be reinforced by experience with stochastic phenomena since subjects may be biased to attend information which confirms the misconceptions.
  • Author(s):
    delMas, R. C., &amp; Garfield, J. B.
    Year:
    1989
    Abstract:
    The first part of the presentation will describe an interactive self-paced instructional program developed on the Apple Macintosh computer. A demonstration version of the program will provide illustrations of the program. Illustrations of how students' concepts of chance are solicited and challenged by the program will also be demonstrated.
    Location:
  • Author(s):
    Chinn, C. A., Brewer, W. F.
    Year:
    1993
    Abstract:
    Understanding how science students respond to anomalous data is essential to understanding knowledge acquisition in science classrooms. This article presents a detailed analysis of the ways in which scientists and science students respond to such data. We postulate that there are seven distinct forms of response to anomalous data, only one of which is to accept the data and change theories. The other six responses involve discounting the data in various ways in order to protect the preinstructional theory. We analyze the factors that influence which of these seven forms of response a scientist or student will choose, giving special attention to the factors that make theory change more likely. Finally, we discuss the implications of our framework for science instruction.

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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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