Search

Most college students who major in psychology are required to take an introductory statistics course. This course requirement often elicits anxiety because students believe that statistics is a difficult subject, involves lots of math, and is not relevant to their career goals. The first perception is accurate. Statistics is a demanding subject. However, the other two perceptions are not true: the required mathematics is quite basic, and statistics is an indispensable tool for understanding psychological knowledge. A number of proven teaching techniques are described for changing students incorrect perceptions about statistics. Also discussed are teaching techniques fro reducing test anxiety, increasing student-teacher interaction, reducing rote memorization, getting students to read assignments on time, and promoting frequent reviews that lead to better long term retention. (Author)

When students study the discipline of statistics, a domain that can be remote and abstract for them, it is critical that they understand what the numbers mean and how those numbers help people arrive at decisions. This paper presents different approaches that help students learn how researchers actually work with statistics and shows how students can develop skills by communicating statistical results to others. The paper proposes that writing about data enhances student learning. It outlines writing strategies to bring the domains of research and experience together. In the author/educator's classes, students use small data sets to provide descriptions of what the numbers tell them, interpreting the data with an eye to the importance of personal perspective and historical context in their conclusions. They assess larger and more complicated data sets and write essays about the results. The paper finds that these assignments allow students to (1) learn to translate numbers into comprehensible, nontechnical language; (2) show them how the same data set can provide data that could lead to conflicting interpretations; (3) help them learn how to identify appropriate uses of the data; (4) convince them that, although the numerical results of research may be incontrovertible, the meaning of those numbers emerges only when someone uses them to draw a conclusion; and (5) illustrate that the "truth" of the meaning of data is often dependent on perspective and historical context. Contains 3 notes, a figure, a table, 6 references, and a sample data set. (BT)

Students should not learn statistical concepts in isolation; statistics and data analysis invite conversations concerning which analysis to use and why, what was found and why, and what results mean and why. To emphasize the importance of this learning in common, a college teacher requires students to collaborate on research projects from hypothesis conception to empirical realization, from data collection to analysis, interpretation, write-up, and presentation. Collaborative efforts provide a practical division of labor and necessarily promote recursive learning, as collaborators must explain and justify their choices to one another. Learning statistics in common encourages students to clarify the choice, application, and appropriateness of statistical analyses; to share and defend a data analytic point of view; to learn while critiquing the perspective of another; to cooperate to create a finished project (manuscript or talk); and to mimic professional psychologists who often work on joint research projects. (Author/SLD)

This paper discusses the objectives that would be appropriate for statistics classes for students who are not majoring in statistics, evaluation, or quantitative research design. These "non-majors" should be able to choose appropriate analytical methods for specific sets of data based on the research question and the nature of the data, and they should be able to interpret the results of data analyses in light of the research question that was proposed. Non-majors should be able to choose from and to interpret the results from these classes of statistical procedures: (1) descriptive statistics (measures of central tendency and measures of variations); (2) measures of relative standing; (3) measures of association (bivariate correlation and regression and multiple correlation and regression); (4) simple cases of hypothesis testing (t-tests, analysis of variance, and analysis of covariance); and (5) multivariate techniques (multivariate analysis of variance, factor analysis, discriminant function analysis, and canonical correlation and regression). Nonmajors also should be able to use statistical analysis computer packages, with the depth of learning determined by the needs of the student. (SLD)

The paper examines the various ways that qualitative researchers can use and interpret numbers, official statistics, and other quantitative data. It puts forth the position that qualitative researchers, in their quest for understanding, have too often viewed official statistics with only a cursory or descriptive analysis without deeper reflection or critical analysis as to the assumptions of the persons who collect and sue quantitative data. R. Bogdan and S. Bilen (1998) have presented several ways in which qualitative researchers can think about quantitative data. These ways of viewing numerical data are discussed: (1) the concept of "real" rates is a misnomer; (2) meaning can change when people, objects, or events are singled out for counting; (3) quantification has a temporal dimension; (4) quantification must be understood as a multilevel phenomenon; (5) both the person and his or her motivation for counting affects the meaning; (6) counting influences social processes with the setting that may be in addition to the activities directly related to the counting; and (7) quantification has a strong affective meaning. Taking the time to view quantitative data through qualitative eyes may be a way to guide an inquiry that expands rather than confines understanding. (SLD)

This paper focuses on statistical thinking as the third arm of statistical development. The paper opens with a survey of recent definitions of statistical thinking and then attempts to differentiate statistical thinking from statistical literacy and statistical reasoning. Implications for instruction are traced, emphasizing beginning courses for nonstatistics majors. Several suggestions are given to develop habits of statistical thinking in students. The final section of the paper suggests methods and concrete examples for assessing students' ability to think statistically. Literacy can be viewed as understanding and interpreting statistical information presented, and reasoning can be narrowly viewed as working through the tools and concepts in the statistics course. Statistical thinking enables the thinker to move beyond what is taught to question and investigate the issues and data involved. These suggestions are given for students developing the statistical thinking habit: (1) start from the beginning; (2) understand the statistical process as a whole; (3) always be skeptical; (4) think about the variables involved; (5) always relate the data to the context; (6) understand and believe the relevance of statistics; and (7) think beyond the textbook. To develop whether students are applying statistical thinking, problems should be designed to test student reflexes, thought patterns, and creativity in novel situations. (Contains 25 references.) (SLD)

Teachers and principals need to understand and be able to talk intelligently about statistics. They need to be able to clarify concepts and generalizations used in tests that measure student progress. Among the terms educators need to be able to explain are "mean,""average,""median,""validity,""reliability,""pilot studies," and "item analysis." Educators also need to be able to communicate the meanings of percentiles and standard deviations and the distinction between standardized and criterion referenced tests. Teachers, administrators, and measurement specialists should develop a booklet of major statistical concepts and generalizations to inform parents and others as to the meaning of these terms. (SLD)

This report provides the results of a survey of safety and security at colleges and universities in Minnesota, along with policy recommendations to improve safety and security at Minnesota post-secondary institutions. It is based on campus security reports voluntarily submitted by 60 of the 110 Minnesota post-secondary institutions, personal interviews with campus security directors, and input from the Minnesota chapter of the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Officers. It was found that, over the 3 years covered by the survey (1993-95), there were significant increases in the number of reported aggravated assaults, motor vehicle thefts, liquor law violations, and drug abuse violations. Nearly two-thirds of responding institutions indicated that they provided printed material concerning crime and crime prevention to their campuses, while 42 percent provided educational programming and training. Fifty-two percent reported having some form of escort service for students, faculty, and staff. The report recommends that all post-secondary institutions implement basic safety measures (such as maintenance of campus grounds, regularly patrolled campus routes, and escort services), and that campus safety officials should involve students in developing crime prevention initiatives. An appendix provides uniform crime reporting definitions. (MDM)

The collective experience of more than 50 years has led to the development of approaches that have enhanced student comprehension in the teaching of educational research methods, statistics, and measurement. Tips for teachers include using illustrative problems with one-digit numbers, using common situations and everyday objects to illustrate statistical concepts and techniques, and using such "low-tech" aids as transparencies to project complex illustrations. Verbal images or figures of speech (tropes) are useful in expressing statistical concepts. Sometimes a historical note will make a point more vividly than a current allusion, as a discussion of an early controlled experiment illustrates. Teachers should use their creative imaginations to find ways to help students understand statistical concepts. (Contains 16 references.) (SLD)

Though statistical literacy is an essential skill in modern society, students often approach statistics courses with apprehension and "mathophobia." Educators need to design and deliver statistics instruction so as to counter these anxieties and facilitate learning in concrete, experiential ways. This paper explores several key issues in statistical instruction: the need for statistical literacy, the current state of statistical education, course goals and objectives, expected student competencies, essential topics, instructional approaches, and the use of computers and expert systems. Instructional strategies that provide for an epistemological pluralism and accept the validity of multiple ways of knowing and thinking are recommended. Instructor qualifications and characteristics, "hands-on" learning activities, cooperative learning groups, student involvement in research activities, and alternate approaches to testing and assessment are presented as vehicles for accomplishing this objective. Tables in the appendix present research findings related to teaching techniques and essential topics in introductory-level statistics and research methods courses. Contains 67 references. (Author)

This paper describes the conceptual base for the development of a computer-based expert system. After reviewing developments in computer-based learning and experiments with computer-assisted learning in statistics, the paper describes the nature of expert systems and desired attributes of expert systems in statistics. An overview of proposed research projects to develop a computer-based expert system research outliner/statistical tutor is presented. Current progress, anticipated timelines and methodological concerns are provided. Two figures--The Changing Focus of Attention in Technology for Computer-Assisted Learning and System Delivery Tools--are included. (Contains 37 references.) (Author/ALF)

Reasons for poor performance in mathematics by students in the United States are discussed. According to the authors, too many students never experience arithmetic at a physical, concrete level. Students are drilled in arithmetic facts without any meaningful context and are given few opportunities to use numerical concepts in real-life applications. Described in this fastback in the form of a Decalogue, or ten commandments, are methods that can be used to teach mathematics successfully. These commandments hold for every grade level including postsecondary mathematics. Topics include: (1) the use of manipulatives and visuals; (2) cooperative learning models; (3) diagnosis of student development; (4) unit plan development; (5) problem solving; (6) algebra and geometry; (7) the use of computers and calculators; (8) mental computation, estimation, and measurement; (9) probability and statistics; (10) integration of skills and techniques from different branches of mathematics. (KR)

Quantitative literacy, the ability to discriminate between good and bad data, the disposition to use quantitative information to think through complex problems are capacities that educators across fields should be helping students develop. Burke leads the reader to this conclusion through an extended example of income distribution, clarified and made powerful by visual representation. Noting that the content of thought and the depth of understanding are dependent on the tools brought to a task, the writer advocates that the ability to think in terms of quantitative data, in terms of tables and graphs, is indispensable for understanding the modern world and should be part of what is taught to all students, not just those in selected courses or selected majors. We write, after all, says Burke, to figure out what we think. Students must be taught to write so that they will learn how to think.

The writer calls attention to the many traps associated with one of the most frequent uses of assessment: the technical difficulties of measuring changes in learning over time. Noting that psychometricians don't like "change" or "difference" scores in statistical analyses because they tend to have lower reliability than the original measures themselves. Bond applauds educators who recognize that difference between what students know before instruction and what they know after instruction reveals important aspects of teaching and provides example from personal experience to support his conclusion that measurement and assessment should have a more prominent place in teacher education curricula.

This paper describes the findings of an OECD project examining ICT impact measurement and analyses based on official statistics. Both economic and social impacts are covered and some results are presented. It attempts to place ICT impacts measurement into an Information Society conceptual framework, provides some suggestions for standardising terminology and methodologies, and advocates for further work in a number of hardware and software areas. (A bibliography is included. Contains 19 footnotes, 4 figures and 3 tables.)

The EMERGENCE project carried out by the IES (Institute for Employment Studies) aimed to measure "eWork" at a global level. For the project, eWork was defined to mean any type of work that involves the digital processing of information and that uses a telecommunications link for receipt or delivery of the work to a remote employer or business client. Providing an overview for discussion, the project report first outlines the definition of eWork and then addresses the question of the value of monitoring eWork and points out its relevance to policymakers in many disciplines. Finally, the report discusses the inadequacy of the existing sectoral and occupational classification systems to capture the characteristics and dynamics of eWork, and suggests some issues for consideration by European agencies involved in the collection and analysis of statistics on the information economy. The report concludes with several recommendations, including the following: (1) European labor force surveys should include questions that make it possible to identify people who work at or from their homes or from multiple locations using computers with a telecommunications link to employers or clients; (2) the updating of occupational classification codes should include a process for capturing information on the new jobs that are emerging in the information economy and synchronizing codes throughout Europe; (3) methods for collecting information about earnings for such occupational groups should be developed; and (4) the data from such studies should be updated regularly through additional surveys. (KC)

During the 1970s, unprecedented numbers of American adults returned to school. The reasons for this growth and what trends in adult education can be projected for the future are the subject of this policy research monograph. The monograph began with the question, "What will the clientele and scale of adult education likely be in 1990 if present trends continue and if there are no marked changes in the way work institutions, education institutions, and American workers behave toward adult education?" The report is a portrayal of the next ten years of adult education, assuming continuation of past trends in participation for various age, sex, race, educational attainment, and income groupings in the population. It assumes no significant change in the way major work and educational institutions value and support worklife education opportunity. These projections suggest a future of widening disparity in educational attainment between majority and minority population, between the more affluent and the less afluent, younger and older adults, and between high educational achievers and those with low prior educational attainments. (KC)

Statistics tend to become interesting to non-methodologists when taught in a research context that is relevant to them. Real data sets supplemented by sufficient background information can provide just such a context. Despite this, many textbook authors and instructors of applied statistics rely on artificial data sets to illustrate statistical techniques. In this paper, it is argued that artificial data sets should be eliminated from the curriculum and that they should be replaced with real data sets. Towards this end, a rationale for using real data sets and the characteristics that make data sets particularly good for instructional use are described. The difficulties encountered when using real data and strategies for compensating for these drawbacks are also discussed. Two authentic data sets and an annotated bibliography of dozens of primary and secondary data sources are included. (Author/PK)

This report describes the grant proposals which funded an end-user instruction program for upper division and graduate students enrolled at a state university in California, and reviews the implementation and the evolution of the online instruction program originally funded by a $3,500 California State University Northridge Instructional Improvement Grant. Statistics are provided on the usage by databases searched; observations of the five principal instructor-librarians; analyses of the evaluation forms completed by students; and projections for the co-existence of the online instruction program with the increasingly popular CD-ROMs. Appendixes include: (1) the grant proposal and final reports; (2) a bibliography on online bibliographic databases; (3) a selective guide to database searching offering lower costs and simplified searching; (4) the student evaluation form; and (5) a sample flier for promoting faculty online seminars. (CGD)

Treating the camera as an information technology, this essay shows how the camera is a powerful theoretical disquisition on the nature of form, realism, and scientific vision. The first section presents a history of form, separate from matter, as something collectible in a library or museum. The second section discusses the photograph as a rival to painting and as the culmination of the western theory of painting which was influenced by mimesis and the "camera obscura." The third section presents the influence of photographic form on the Platonic concept of the noumenal form. The final section argues that in the early days of the modern statistical mind, visual-photographic processes were essentially statistical and that the statistical process, as a mental process, was essentially visual and photographic. (SRT)

Academic librarians who have faculty status must meet the same criteria for promotion and tenure as other faculty members, including doing research. However, library schools may not be training librarians adequately in the research skills required for entry level academic positions. In order to determine whether library schools in the United States meet their stated goals and objectives in regard to training librarians for entry level academic positions, the current catalogs of the 60 graduate library education programs in the United States accredited by the American Library Association as of October 1984 were examined. The goals and objectives stated in the catalogs were then compared to courses taught in research and statistical methods, as well as the availability of a thesis option. Results of the study indicate that most library schools do not meet their stated goals and objectives in training academic librarians in the area of research, and it is recommended that library schools require prior training in research methods and statistical techniques for admittance, or require future academic librarians to take such courses while in library school. Statistical information is presented in seven graphs, eight references are provided, and coded information from the library school bulletins is appended. (Author/KM)

A study panel recommended new ways for the U.S. government to define the poverty threshold, including measures of adequate food, clothing, and shelter for a family of four, with regular updating procedures and an equivalence scale to adjust the threshold for other family types. (SK)

Addressing ethics and diversity issues in statistics curriculum not only meets accreditation criteria but creates interesting and relevant applications of statistical tools. Objectives should be to recognize unethical uses of statistics, appreciate their usefulness in diversity issues, and recognize diversity in a population using statistical tools. (SK)

This overview of the special issue includes worldwide statistics on women's literacy, women's role in international decision making, and the role of international aid in increasing or decreasing sex bias. (SK)

Focusing on educational measurement that suggests an action and has an outcome, 16 problem areas are defined and grouped into the following classes: (1) validity; (2) issues of statistical adjustment; (3) data insufficiencies; (4) other issues related to standardized testing and constructed responses; and (5) technical issues of psychometrics. (SLD)

Describes a study of graduate students that observed the interaction between users of a graphical statistical package and a human playing the role of a simulated intelligent advisory system to guide the design of advice-offering user-assistance software. The use of video to examine the users' role in the interaction is discussed. (Contains 37 references.) (LRW)

The problem of monitoring trends for changes at unknown times is considered. Statistics that permit one to focus high power on a segment of the monitored period are studied. Numerical procedures are developed to compute the null distribution of these statistics. (Author)

The use of computer graphics as visual aids to lecture-style university instruction is discussed briefly. It is contended that the following three factors inhibit the application of computers as visual aids: (1) the costs of providing sufficient numbers of monitors and large enough monitors to allow appropriate visual access by students are relatively high; (2) most software is designed for individualized, laboratory-style instruction as opposed to lecture hall instruction; and (3) teachers have negative attitudes toward the use of computers in the lecture hall. In spite of these problems, implementation of computers in lecture halls is likely to continue. Three original graphics screens developed for statistics lectures are cited. (TJH)

Introduces eight minicenters that deal with topics such as time, mystery objects, statistical tables, nature, comedy, and war. These materials are aimed for the upper elementary grades and are intended to spark interest in an area and to entice the learner into stopping for a while to browse. (MOK)

Examines library-based literacy programs. Topics discussed include changes over the past eight years; current statistics; the relationship between libraries and literacy; advantages of using libraries for literacy programs, including social neutrality; immigrant populations and English as a Second Language; intergenerational family programs; and the role of volunteers. (Contains two references.) (LRW)

In the context of teaching urban working-class adults basic math and statistics for the social sciences, demonstrates ways in which Freire's critical education theory can illuminate specific problems and solutions in critical teaching and ways in which math education can contribute to liberating social change. (CMG)

The American Statistical Association's recommendations for statistical instruction in legal education are summarized, including notes on the need for such education, existing programs for law students and practicing attorneys, emphasis on comprehension rather than production of statistical analysis, and statistics training program content. (MSE)

The usual measure of achieved weight gives an exaggerated impression of the impact that removing a paper from an examination will have. A more accurate indicator of the influence of removing a paper is given by expressing its observed score variance as a proportion of the variance of the total. (Author/IS)