Project-Based Learning in Introductory Statistics: Comparing Course Experiences and Predicting Positive Outcomes for Students from Diverse Educational Settings

Abstract

In order to evaluate the acceptability and potential impact of the Passion-Driven Statistics curriculum, this article describes background characteristics, and course experiences and outcomes of students enrolled in the multidisciplinary, introductory, projectbased course in liberal arts colleges, large state universities, regional college/universities, and community colleges. We found that the course could be successfully delivered across these diverse educational settings. After controlling for educational setting and pre-survey responses to individual outcome measures, consistent predictors of positive course outcomes included student's initial interest in conducting research, their higher likelihood of enrolling in a statistics course if it were not required, finding the project-based course less challenging, and finding the research project more rewarding than other students. Regional college/university, and community college students reported working significantly harder in the course and finding the course more challenging than students taking the course at liberal arts colleges or state universities. Students from liberal arts colleges generally reported more positive course experiences than students from other educational settings. However, when compared to students from both liberal arts colleges and large state universities, those from regional colleges/universities reported being more likely to have learned more in the project-based course than in other college courses they had taken. Taken together, the project-based course was successfully delivered across diverse post-secondary educational settings and provides a promising model for getting students hooked on the power and excitement of applied statistics.

A problem-solving course in statistics for mathematical science students

“…The approach taken in the course had strong overlaps with that of (Dierker, et al, 2018) in their project-based learning course. Both courses took the approach of presenting methods and tools in the context of (research) questions and realistic statistical problems.…”

“…More concretely, new introductory courses are being developed at the undergraduate level to address some of these issues. Dierker, et al (2018) discusses an introductory statistics course that uses project based learning for both science and non-science majoring students. The focus is on encouraging students to learn how to select the appropriate methods and tools for their research questions, rather than learning a fixed set of methods and tools in isolation.…”

“…Hardin, Horton, & Nolan (2015) gives an overview of a range of new introductory data science courses that "all share a goal of having students become proficient in data technologies and programming tools for problem solving with data" and the paper suggests Programming, Data technologies and formats, and Statistical Topics as topics to consider when integrating data science into statistics curricular. This is more prescriptive than the approach taken by Dierker et al (2018) where the choice of tools and methods varied across implementations and students within a class.…”

Envisioning Change in the Statistics-Education Climate

“…On the contrary, such an approach could embed that within a broader problem-solving skill set. There have been recent efforts to develop problem-solving and project-based introductory statistics courses with a focus on data skills, independent of the choice of statistical software by the lecturers and the students (Parsons, Stern, & Stern, 2019;Dierker et al, 2018). This problemsolving approach focuses on data skills and is almost independent of mathematical background or programming skills.…”

Aprendizaje basado en proyectos soportado en un diseño tecno-pedagógico para la enseñanza de la estadística descriptiva

“…El Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos (ABPy) como una estrategia pedagógica, que según investigadores como (Villalobos-Abarca, et al, 2018;Dierker, et al, 2018), busca incluir en el desarrollo de los contenidos programáticos, la realización de proyectos que permitan la integración de la teoría con la práctica y el trabajo colaborativo, reflejando la aplicabilidad de los conocimientos adquiridos de las diferentes áreas de la formación académica y los obtenidos por la experiencia del estudiante. Es en ese mismo sentido, que , consideran que esta estrategia es una forma de instrucción que centra su atención en el aprendizaje de los estudiantes, específicamente en la aplicación de conocimientos en contextos específicos donde los estudiantes participan activamente por medio de las interacciones sociales desde lo colectivo.…”