Research

  • An initial evaluation plan was outlined by a team of QL project directors and evaluation consultants. This plan had seven key components to be investigated by different individuals and teams. One component was a survey to gather descriptive information on participating teachers. the DESCRIPTIVE INFORMATION survey was designed and mailed out by QL staff. Some of the information gathered through the survey is summarized in this report. Another component of the plan was a sample survey, designed to obtain information on both attitude and pedagogy from a large group of teachers. In addition, teachers were to be surveyed about their reactions of the QL training sessions. Students from selected classes of the teachers were also to be surveyed with specially designed instruments. Questions were posed to structure this part of the evaluation and to guide development of appropriate instruments. This report describes how answers to these questions were sought with the teacher and student survey components of the evaluation.

  • This study describes the development of a new instrument entitled Attitudes Toward Statistics (ATS), to be used in the measurement of attitude change in introductory statistics students. Two ATS subscales are identified, labeled Attitude Toward Course, and Attitude Toward the Field, respectively. These subscales are shown to have both high internal consistency and test-retest reliability. It is further shown that each ATS subscale provides distinctly different information about the attitudes of introductory statistics students.

  • This study was conducted to determine the effect of previous mathematics, statistics, and computer science coursework; attitudes toward statistics and computers; and mathematics ability on statistics achievement. A secondary purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the computer laboratory component of an inferential statistics class on the end of course attitudes toward statistics and computers controlling for precourse attitudes.

  • Our statistics course for introductory psychology is a group Keller course in which students are required to work in small groups. This brief paper reports that, despite earlier fears, it was found successful to let students form themselves into groups for the course.

  • This paper describes a comparison of the performance and preferences of students assigned to streamed groups with those of students assigned to mixed-ability groups.

  • One subject toward which many students have a negative attitude and a lack of enthusiasm is introductory statistics. The question is, therefore, can classroom techniques change negative attitudes and promote enthusiasm for statistics in addition to increasing test performance?

  • The present study had four purposes: a) to investigate children and adults' understanding of four component properties of the arithmetic mean, b) to determine the relative difficulty of these four component properties of the mean, c) to determine the differential potential of varied problem formats to facilitate understanding of the arithmetic mean, and d) to discuss differences between different types of methods for contributing to research about, and investigating understanding of the arithmetic mean.

  • This paper presents the results of an instrument designed to probe children's intuitive notions of probability. The test consists of 16 questions, a few of which are analyzed in depth either qualitatively or quantitatively. A good selection of pupils' responses are included to illuminate children's intuitions. It is suggested that a mixture of teaching approaches should be used to help children develop probabilistic concepts coherently.

  • While many teachers of statistics are likely to focus on transmitting knowledge, many students are likely to have trouble with statistics due to non-cognitive factors, such as (math) anxiety or negative attitudes towards statistics, which can impede learning of statistics, or hinder the extent to which students will develop useful statistical intuitions and apply what they have learned outside the classroom. This paper explores the role of attitudes in the learning of statistics, examines existing instruments for assessing attitudes and beliefs of students, and provides suggestions for methods teachers can use to gauge where students stand on some non-cognitive factors.

  • This packet is a collection of several separate papers from ICOTS III. It includes the following papers: - A Complementarity Between Intuitions and Mathematics, by Manfred Borovnik (ID 811) - What's Typical? Children's Ideas about Average, by Janice R. Mokros, Susan Jo Russell, Amy Shulman Weinberg and Lynne L. (ID 804) - The loss of intuition - A lesson for the school teacher?, by F. R. Jolliffe (ID 809) - Assessment of the understanding of statistical concepts, by F. R. Jolliffe (ID 812) - Exploring the Stability of Students' Conceptions of Probability, by Joan Garfield and Robert delMas - The Use of Multiple Items to Identify Misconceptions in Probabilistic Reasoning, by Robert delMas and Joan Garfield (ID 471) - Use of the arithmetic mean: An investigation of four properties issues and preliminary results, by Marjorie Roth Lean and Judith Zawojewski (ID 805) - The origin of inconsistencies in probabilistic reasoning of novices, by Clifford Konold, Alexander Pollatsek, Arnold Well and Jill Hendrickson (ID 810) - A longitudinal study of pupils' probability concepts, by David Green (ID 807) - Use of the Chance-Concept in Everyday Teaching - Aspects of a Socially Constituted Epistemology of Mathematical Knowledge, by Heinz Steinberg (ID 808) - Learning about sampling: Trouble at the core of statistics, by Andee Rubin, Bertram Bruce and Yvette Tenney (ID 806)

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