Questions to assess the understanding of statistical concepts.


Book: 
Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference On Teaching Statistics (ICOTS-7), Salvador, Brazil.
Authors: 
McKenzie, Jr., J. D., & Goldman, R.
Editors: 
Rossman, A., & Chance, B.
Category: 
Year: 
2006
Publisher: 
Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute.
URL: 
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/17/C110.pdf
Abstract: 

The GAISE College Report recommends that introductory applied statistics courses should place greater stress on statistical concepts and less stress on definitions, computations, and procedures. The report also urges instructors to align assessments with learning goals. In this paper the authors explain how instructors can implement these two recommendations. They first review the extent to which questions directly related to concepts are found in popular texts and on websites created by the publishers of these texts. Following this review they provide examples of such questions in a variety of formats (multiple choice, fill-in-the blank, open-ended, etc.). The examples will be classified by the approximate level of educational objective contained in Bloom's Taxonomy. Finally, the paper will discuss the advantages and disadvantages associated with having students answer such questions electronically.

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