University students' ability to apply statistical procedures

Statistics educators have previously noted that university students experience some difficulty in knowing when to use statistical concepts they have encountered in their courses. In this study, statistics educators rated the importance of various descriptive and inferential statistical procedures for inclusion in an introductory statistics course. Items describing research situations were written (each item representing a different procedure) and presented to a sample of undergraduate and postgraduate statistics students. Students were asked to decide which procedure was appropriate for addressing each research situation. Results revealed that identifying appropriate statistical procedures in new situations is indeed difficult.