Empirical Research in Statistics Education

Abstract

In this ICME-13 Topical Survey, we provide a review of recent research into statistics education. We focus our review on empirical research that has been published in established educational journals or the proceedings of important conferences that include at least a section referring to statistics education. We have identified and will address six important research topics, namely, teacher knowledge, teachers' statistics-related affect, teacher preparation, student knowledge, students' statistics-related affect, and student learning of statistics with technology. For each research topic we build upon existing reviews and add more recent research. In each section we start with a review of recent research and end with a brief conclusion for each research topic.

An Exploration of the Perceived Usefulness of the Introductory Statistics Course and Students’ Intentions to Further Engage in Statistics

“…However, while a project-based course usually implies an active learning course, with just 20% of the course assessment focused on active learning, it could be that the two formats are similar and more akin to traditional pedagogy. Accordingly, these less-favorable reports (Ramirez and Bond 2014) could be supporting the notion that students who pursue an introductory statistics course based on traditional pedagogy are less likely to appreciate the value of statistics, and hence those students are less inclined to consider taking another statistics course. Indeed, the results from the wider published literature are quite varied in this regard, and, in some instances, counterintuitive, which could be attributed to inconsistency in instrumentation across studies and curricular design, particularly regarding what constitutes the core elements of an active learning introductory statistics course (Carlson and Winquist 2011).…”

“…Other studies have noted considerably lower levels of perceived usefulness or value. For example, Ramirez and Bond (2014) reported that only 20% of students (35 out of 175) who completed an introductory statistics course were neutral or expressed some degree of usefulness for the course. One plausible explanation for these mixed reports is the lack of consistency in how attitude and its components (including perceived usefulness) are measured and interpreted; this factor could limit comparability across studies (Nolan, Beran, and Hecker 2012).…”

“…For example, Ramirez and Bond (2014) reported that 66% (N = 64), and 65% (N = 111) of students who took a project-based course (where the project was 20 percent of the final grade) and a hybrid course (traditional lecture and online), respectively, were not likely to take another statistics course. It is worth observing that these two course formats seem intended to compare different pedagogical approaches (active learning versus traditional).…”

“…While there is much variability in how attitude is conceptualized, operationalized, and interpreted, a salient and consistent component in this context is students' perceived value or usefulness of statistics (Nolan et al 2012); this perception underpins motivation to learn and apply the knowledge and skills acquired, including pursuing further studies in statistics. Moreover, the limited published research shows a tendency for students to be disinclined to use statistics in the field they hope to be employed, or to take another statistics course (Ramirez and Bond 2014); this behavior can be counterproductive to personal and professional success-and the advancement of the discipline of statistics. Related research in statistics education has focused almost exclusively on the role of attitude in explaining and predicting academic learning outcomes; therefore, there is a paucity of research evidence on how attitude (particularly perceived usefulness) influences students' intentions to use and stay engaged in statistics beyond the introductory course.…”

Analyzing Some of the Students' Mistakes through Solving Multiple Choice Questions of Chemistry in Vietnamese High School

“…Experimental results are handled by mathematical statistical methods [9], [10] as follows: (i) Make a table of distribution of frequencies, cumulative frequency; (ii) Graph the cumulative line from the cumulative frequency distribution table; (iii) Calculate the typical parameters.…”