Postsecondary students’ understanding of statistics through story-based tasks

Abstract

This paper is based on a study that explored a pedagogical approach consisting of interactive story-based tasks used in a first-year undergraduate business statistics course. It addresses the types of understanding students developed for selected statistics topics. Participants were undergraduate business majors required to take the course. Data consisted of the students’ work with the four story-based tasks. Findings suggest that interactive story-based tasks have the potential to be a worthwhile pedagogical approach to support students’ understanding of several statistics concepts at various levels of understanding, but further research is needed to better understand the pedagogical approach needed for adult learners to better implement these tasks to support the deepest level of understanding for all concepts.