University students' ability to apply statistical procedures


Book: 
Journal of Statistics Education
Authors: 
Gardner, P. L., & Hudson, I.
Category: 
Volume: 
7(1)
Pages: 
Online
Year: 
1999
URL: 
http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/secure/v7n1/gardner.cfm
Abstract: 

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.

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