and Learning of Introductory Statistics at the College Level? A Review of the Literature (original) (raw)
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International Statistical Review / Revue Internationale de Statistique, 1995
Research in the areas of psychology, statistical education, and mathematics education is reviewed and the results applied to the teaching of college-level statistics courses. The argument is made that statistics educators need to determine what it is they really want students to learn, to modify their teaching according to suggestions from the research literature, and to use assessment to determine if their teaching is effective and if students are developing statistical understanding and competence.
International Journal of Latest Research in Engineering and Technology, 2017
The purpose of this study is to determine what college statistics faculty perceive as the challenges of teaching and learning statistics at the college level and what are the best approaches to overcome these challenges.The study used a descriptive surveywith four related open-ended questions as a data collection instrument. The study population was comprised of undergraduate faculty from U.S. colleges and universities. The respondent population included 218 participants. After organizing the collected information, several specific challenges in teaching and learning statistics were identified as well as participants' perspectives on how to overcome those identified challenges. Four main areas were used as well as several categories within each main area were identified through the responses.Instructional pedagogy was identified as a key problem in teaching and learning statistics as well as a primary method to overcome these challenges.Other highlighted areas included student academic preparation and some focus on the content of these courses as well as the role of administrative support. Participants provided valuable tips, suggestions, and techniques to overcome the identified challenges for both, teaching and learning statistics. The study also shows a significant role for administrators and academic leaders in the process. Recommendations based on the findings are provided and discussed.
This chapter presents a literature review of theories used to frame and underpin Statistics Education Research. The aim is to describe, characterize and arrange the nature and use of theories in SER and hint at some potential trends and required directions for further theorizing the SER discipline. The review includes empirical research papers, published from 2004 to 2015, and focuses on students’ learning of statistics or probability at the primary and secondary school level. The number of papers that fulfilled our inclusion criteria was 35.
Teaching and learning statistics in college: how learning materials should be designed
Journal of physics, 2018
The evolving nature of statistics implies that the skill of reading statistical information to be essential for college students. To encourage the skill, learning materials need to be appropriately developed. This article aimed to synthesize the issues and suggestions from the current empirical research in statistics education relevant to designing statistics learning materials for college students. The data were collected from from111 research articles published from the last 15 years, which were related to teaching and learning statistics in college. Cognitive and social cognitive learning perspectives were used in reviewing and synthesizing the research, which may reveal the different concerns for a specific situation. Three key suggestions for designing statistics learning materials for college students were identified: using real-life data; familiar contexts; and interactive materials. The reviews also suggested the urgent need for research focusing on designing learning materials for statistics.
Teaching, Learning and Retention of Statistical Ideas in Introductory Statistics Education
European Journal of Pure and Applied Mathematics, 2011
Introductory statistics education aims to train students to be efficient users, consumers or communicators of statistics. Building students’ conceptual understanding and statistical reasoning skills is essential for an introductory statistics course to be successful. Effective course curriculum must be developed to accommodate the facilitation and assessment of students’ retention of statistical knowledge learned. This paper presents a mixture of literature review and personal reflection on these issues in regard with introductory statistics teaching and learning.
Teaching and Learning of Statistics
The Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education, 2015
Being able to provide sound evidence-based arguments and critically evaluate data-based claims are important skills that all citizens should have. It is not surprising therefore that the study of statistics at all educational levels is gaining more students and drawing more attention than it has in the past. The study of statistics provides students with tools, ideas and dispositions to use in order to react intelligently to information in the world around them. Reflecting this need to improve students' ability to think statistically, statistical literacy and reasoning are becoming part of the mainstream school and university curriculum in many countries. As a consequence, statistics education is a growing and becoming an exciting field of research and development. Statistics at school level is usually taught in the mathematics classroom in connection with learning probability. Topic Study Group 12 (TSG-12) included probabilistic aspects in learning statistics, whereas research with a specific focus on learning probability was discussed in TSG-11 of ICME-12.
Three Empirical Strateigies for Teaching Statistics
This paper employs a three-step process to analyze three empirically supported strategies for teaching statistics to BSW students. The strategies included: repetition, immediate feedback, and use of original data. First, each strategy is addressed through the literature. Second, the application of employing each of the strategies over the period of eight years of classroom application is outlined and discussed. Third, the three strategies are evaluated by students.
The Discipline of Statistics Education
2008
The Growing Importance of Statistics No one will debate the fact that quantitative information is everywhere and numerical data are increasingly presented with the intention of adding credibility to advertisements, arguments, or advice. Most would also agree that being able to properly evaluate such evidence and data-based claims are important skills that all citizens should have, and therefore, that all students should learn as part of their education. It is not surprising therefore that statistics instruction at all educational levels is gaining more students and drawing more attention. The study of statistics provides students with tools and ideas to use in order to react intelligently to quantitative information in the world around them. Reflecting this need to improve students' ability to think statistically, statistics and statistical reasoning are becoming part of the mainstream school curriculum in many countries. For example, more statistical content is being mandated in the K-12 mathematics curriculum (Australian Education Council, 1994; Curriculum Corporation, 2006; Department for Education and Employment, 1999; Ministry of Education, 1992; National Council of Teachers for Mathematics, 2000). Additionally, as more and more departments realize the importance of statistical thinking in their own disciplines, enrollments in statistics courses at the college level continue to grow (Scheaffer & Stasney, 2004). Moore (1998) suggested that statistics should be viewed as one of the liberal arts because statistics involves distinctive and powerful ways of thinking: "Statistics is a general intellectual method that applies wherever data, variation, and chance appear. It is a fundamental method because data, variation, and chance are omnipresent in modern life" (p. 134).