Literature Index

Displaying 411 - 420 of 3326
  • Author(s):
    Schau, C., & Mattern, N.
    Editors:
    Gal, I., & Garfield, J. B.
    Year:
    1997
    Abstract:
    We believe that connected understanding among concepts is necessary for successful statistical reasoning and problem solving. Two of our major instructional goals in teaching statistics at any level are to assist students in gaining connected understanding and to assess their understanding. In this chapter, we will explore the following questions: (1) Why is connected understanding important in statistics education?, (2) What models of connected understanding are useful in thinking about statistics education?, (3) How can connected understanding be represented visually?, and (4) What approaches exist for assessing connected understanding?
  • Author(s):
    Carmen Díaz and Inmaculada de la Fuente,
    Year:
    2007
    Abstract:
    In this paper we first describe the process of building a questionnaire directed to globally assess formal understanding of conditional probability and the psychological biases related to this concept. We then present results from applying the questionnaire to a sample of 414 students, after they had been taught the topic. Finally, we use Factor Analysis to show that formal knowledge of conditional probability in these students was unrelated to the different biases in conditional probability reasoning. These biases also appeared unrelated in our sample. We conclude with some recommendations about how to improve the teaching of conditional probability.
  • Author(s):
    Forsyth, G. A., Bohling, P. H., & May, R. B.
    Abstract:
    One objective of this chapter is to introduce a diagnostic approach to assess how well students answer questions about a research report. A second objective is to show how the proposed assessment tools can be used to identify teaching strategies for overcoming students' errors in interpreting reports. A third objective is to suggest how the interpretation-of-research assessment questions can be used to help students identify what information needed for interpretation is missing in journal or media reports.
  • Author(s):
    Cryer, J. D.
    Year:
    1997
    Abstract:
    In this talk I will give some principles and many examples of "objective" questions that test statistical concepts. In some of our large classes we must of necessity use machine-gradable tests. Is it still possible to test concepts (and not just computations) in such a setting? I will try to argue (mostly by example) that we can test concepts this way. The most important principle for any testing is: Test what you believe is important!
  • Author(s):
    BIEHLER, Rolf
    Year:
    2007
    Abstract:
    As part of the assessment after an introductory statistics course, students had to do a small project and submit a written report describing their methods, results and conclusions. We supported the report writing and the project work by several means. Among others, we developed an "exemplary project report" they were introduced to. This project report was written in two columns. In the first column the report about a question concerning a data set is with our best knowledge, in the accompanying second column, we reflect on the choices and options to be made in the respective stages of the report. The aim is to stimulate meta-cognitive activity and to help the students seeing the general in the particular of the exemplary report. We got several dozens of project reports and analyzed them carefully. We developed a grading scheme with several dimensions, including the quality of introductory and concluding sections, the quality of method choice and the quality of analysis and conclusions. We did not only pay attention to statistical quality but also to questions of style of writing such as whether the project question is introduced in a motivating manner and whether clear and convincing conclusions are presented to the reader with good communicative means including adequate graphs. The grading scheme was used to provide feed-back to the students. On the other hand we used this scheme for a systematic analysis of the available project reports. Weaknesses and strengths, most difficult areas for our students were identified and we were able to reflect on the adequacy and the shortcomings of our guiding "exemplary report" and our grading scheme. I will present those findings of our study that seem to be generalizable with regard to the question of assessing students' knowledge by means of projects and of report writing.
  • Author(s):
    BUDGETT, Stephanie and PFANNKUCH, Maxine
    Year:
    2007
    Abstract:
    This paper describes the methods and challenges in assessing an undergraduate course entitled Lies, Damned Lies, and Statistics. The course has three main aims: to instill in students the ability to "think statistically", to enable students to critically evaluate statistically based reports and to teach students to construct statistically sound reports. The assessment is examined in terms of these aims and the criteria developed by Gal (2002) for statistical literacy.
  • Author(s):
    Curcio, F. R., & Artzt, A. F.
    Editors:
    Gal, I., & Garfield, J. B.
    Year:
    1997
    Abstract:
    The ability to interpret and predict from data presented in graphical form is a higher-order thinking skill that is a necessity in our highly technological society. Recent recommendations for the mathematics and science education communities have therefore stressed the importance of engaging learners in real life statistical tasks given in a setting that will promote effective problem solving. Since the small-group setting has been shown to be a fertile environment in which problem solving can occur, we have used that setting for engaging students in data analysis tasks. However, there is a dearth of ideas related to how to assess students' behavior, thinking, and performance in such a setting. The purpose of this chapter is to describe a framework for assessing students' problem solving behaviors on a graph task as they work within a small-group setting.
  • Author(s):
    delMas, R., Ooms, A., Garfield, J., & Chance, B.
    Editors:
    Rossman, A., & Chance, B.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    This paper describes the ARTIST project which was designed to address the assessment challenge in statistics education. The goals of the ARTIST project are to assist faculty who teach statistics across many disciplines in assessing student learning of statistics, enabling them to better evaluate individual student achievement, to evaluate and improve their courses, and to allow them to assess the impact of reform-based instructional methods on the attainment of statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking. ARTIST consists of a website that provides resources designed to meet these goals. Among the resources are a large, searchable assessment item database, several online topic tests, and a comprehensive test of statistical literacy and reasoning (CAOS). Details of the development of the ARTIST resources, results from an extensive evaluation of the project, and the development of future ARTIST resources are presented.
  • Author(s):
    Budé, L.
    Editors:
    Rossman, A., & Chance, B.
    Year:
    2006
    Abstract:
    Statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking may be the most prominent objectives of statistics education; they are unsatisfactorily defined and demarcated. Therefore, they are difficult to monitor, and assess. As a consequence they are impractical as educational goals. Instead, assessment could be focused on those aspects of specific statistical knowledge that are indicative for different levels of understanding. Factual knowledge directly derived from sources of information indicates a superficial level of understanding; a comprehensive, coherent knowledge structure indicates a more profound level of understanding, and the ability to transfer knowledge (the ability to flexibly engage statistical knowledge in novel tasks) indicates an expert level of understanding. This classification of hierarchically related levels of statistical understanding may produce adequate ways of measurement and assessment.
  • Author(s):
    RANDALL E. GROTH
    Year:
    2008
    Abstract:
    This paper starts from the premise that teachers' discourse communities influence how ideas for reform are implemented. In order to understand some of the discourse surrounding the reforms proposed by GAISE, an online focus group activity was conducted. The focus group consisted of pre-service and practicing teachers responsible for teaching statistics at various grade levels. Focus group discourse was used to formulate a set of working hypotheses about actions that need to be taken to facilitate the implementation of GAISE. Working hypotheses emphasized that statistics educators need to play roles in developing teachers' content knowledge, helping teachers understand the differences between mathematics and statistics, deepening teachers' pedagogical knowledge, building teachers' curricular knowledge, and influencing the writing of state-level standards.

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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