Students' understanding of hypothesis testing: The case of the significance concept

Book: 
Proceedings of the 20th annual meetings of the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia: People in Mathematics Education (MERGA)
Authors: 
Williams, A.
Editors: 
Biddulph, F. & Carr, K.
Type: 
Conference Paper
Category: 
Research
Year: 
1997
Publisher: 
University of Waikato Printery
URL: 
See compilation of Research Papers from 1997 ID # 2852 (Garfield & Truran)
Abstract: 

Throughout introductory tertiary statistics subjects, students are introduced to a multitude of statistical concepts and procedures. One such term, significance, has been given considerable emphasis in the statistical literature with respect ot the topic of hypothesis testing. However, systematic research regarding this concept is very limited. This paper investigates students' coneptual and procedural knowledge of this concept through the use of concept maps and standard hypothesis tests. Eighteen students completing a first course in university -level statistics were interviewed twice during a 14-week semester.

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