Visruth Srimath Kandali (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo), Ella Smith (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo), Amy Troung (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo)
Abstract
Background. Exploring the nature of how students learn Statistics and how instructors can most effectively help them has been a focal point in statistics education research over the past few decades (Carver et al., 2016). While earlier studies focused on different teaching approaches (e.g., Simon et al., 1976; Federer, 1978), cognitive challenges and misconceptions (e.g., Brewer, 1985; Garfield and Ahlgren, 1988), and students' attitudes (e.g., Pavlick, 1975; Gal and Ginsburg, 1994), recent research has shifted toward understanding the motivational aspects of learning statistics, e.g. interest (e.g., Sproesser, 2016), self-efficacy (e.g., Finney and Schraw, 2003), and intrinsic motivation (e.g., Dun, 2014). We aim to explore curiosity as part of intrinsic motivation, recognizing its potential to enhance students' learning (Pluck and Johnson, 2011).
Curiosity–the desire to acquire knowledge–is integral to learning environments that actively engage students when teachers can use specific techniques to evoke curiosity, enriching the learning atmosphere (Schmitt and Lahroodi, 2008). One of the initial focuses of this cross-institutional collaboration is to see whether we can measure curiosity efficiently and meaningfully within introductory statistics courses. With this satellite poster, we hope to spark discourse on how curiosity could be measured, and develop mechanisms for further studies into this idea.
Methods. Measuring curiosity is at the heart of this project—part of what we are considering is whether curiosity be measured on a regular basis in the classroom setting. A group of five faculty and one HS teacher attempted to track curiosity throughout the term by asking students: “After today's class, I'm curious about…”. We also administered a pre-survey and end-of-course survey on curiosity (Kashdan et al., 2009) for comparison. By analyzing these responses, we hope to pinpoint possible patterns in statistics classrooms and comparisons across student groups, to see what lessons we can glean before a fuller implementation next year.
Implications For Teaching and For Research. Having an effective way to measure situational interest in introductory statistics will help instructors explore whether certain contexts and/or pedagogical strategies create more curiosity and productive struggle. These results can help instructors link levels of curiosity to student understanding and willingness to ask questions. Perhaps some classroom topics and/or contexts engender more curiosity than others, or for some students more than others. Perhaps some curricula help students anticipate the next topic (“why don't we do this”), as opposed to students not seeing how topics build off each other or focusing only on course logistics (“will this be on the exam”).