Course In Statistical Methods Research Articles

Durable Benefits of Learning-by-Teaching for Research Question Generation Performance: A Field Experiment

Generating good questions is central to scientific inquiry. How can we improve this skill in classrooms? This field experiment showed that teaching others enhances students’ ability to generate higher-order research questions that create new knowledge. Whereas learning-by-teaching often involves delivering face-to-face or video-recorded lectures, we tested its efficient implementation via writing a verbatim (i.e., word-for-word) teaching script, exactly as how one would orate a lecture. In a research and statistical methods course, 199 undergraduates studied statistical concepts by writing verbatim teaching scripts or study notes. One month later, students’ long-term learning was assessed on a high-stakes test, whereby they explained the concepts, applied them to design a study to test a given hypothesis, and generated create-level research questions about the concepts. Writing teaching scripts enhanced students’ research question generation and concept application more than writing study notes. The teaching advantage for these higher-order outcomes held although both techniques produced comparably high basic understanding when students explained the concepts at test. Further, students displayed greater generative processing, metacognitive monitoring, and social presence when writing teaching scripts than study notes. Learning-by-teaching can be leveraged in an efficient and inexpensive way via writing verbatim teaching scripts to improve meaningful, durable learning in classrooms.

Profile of Students’ Argumentation Ability Based On Adversity Quotient In Statistical Problem

Argumentative ability can be seen from the argumentation pattern that appears. This pattern needs to be evaluated to look over the quality of the argumentation to make the right problem-solving. This evaluation can be done by recognizing the components that make up the argument. This study goals to describe students' argumentation abilities in solving statistical problem based on Adversity Quotients (AQ). This qualitative descriptive research elaborated 39 students taking a statistical methods course. Subjects were grouped into three types of Adversity Quotient based on the ARP (Adversity Response Profile) questionnaire results. Data were obtained using statistical problem tests and interviews. The outcomes showed three levels of AQ found in students, namely Camper, Toward Climber, and Climber. Camper-type students bring up the Claim-Data-Warrant pattern. Students with AQ levels towards climbers tend to have the same pattern as the Camper type. In comparison, students with the AQ Climber type have a Claim-Data-Warrants-Backing pattern. Based on the outcomes of the study, it can see that students' argumentation skills are determined by the Adversity Quotient level they have when solving statistical problems.

Technology-enhanced pre-instructional peer assessment: Exploring students’ perceptions in a Statistical Methods course

There has been strong interest among higher education institution in implementing technology-enhanced peer assessment as a tool for enhancing students’ learning. However, little is known on how to use the peer assessment system in pre-instructional activities. This study aims to explore how technology-enhanced peer assessment can be embedded into pre-instructional activities to enhance students’ learning. Therefore, the present study was an explorative descriptive study that used the qualitative approach to attain the research aim. This study used a questionnaire, students’ reflections, and interview in collecting student’s perceptions toward the interventions. The results suggest that the technology-enhanced pre-instructional peer assessment helps students to prepare the new content acquisition and become a source of students’ motivation in improving their learning performance for the following main body of the lesson. A set of practical suggestions is also proposed for designing and implementing technology-enhanced pre-instructional peer assessment.

The Benefits of Using a Course Disk to Aid in the Instruction of Statistics Courses

A course disk in either CD or DVD format can be very beneficial to online, hybrid, or distance courses in statistics as well as traditional on-campus courses, augmenting existing technologies like course management systems. A typical course disk may include the syllabus and course outline, calendar, instructions, lecture notes and lecture outlines, handouts, assignments, interactive content such as quizzes and surveys, software, statistical tables, example program files, program code, data files, video lectures and tutorials, and pertinent website links. In most cases, a course disk would be used in addition to traditional methods like course management systems rather than in place of these traditional methods. Most of the benefits of a course disk are shared with course management systems like Blackboard or Moodle; however, a course disk has the distinct advantages that it need not rely on internet access and it provides access to course materials after a course has ended.One course disk was developed and used in teaching a graduate-level introductory statistical methods course in three different settings: distance learning off-campus condensed course, online course, and traditional on-campus course. The course disk provided a variety of benefits across delivery formats as well as benefits unique to each delivery format.This article will (1) review relevant literature, (2) describe the course disk and compare its use to other content delivery methods, (3) discuss the experiences and evaluation of using the course disk in three different settings and how the students in each setting benefited from using the course disk, and (4) discuss the necessary hardware and software and the process of making a course disk.

Internet Approach versus Lecture and Lab‐Based Approach for Teaching an Introductory Statistical Methods Course: Students’ Opinions

SummaryThe use of the Internet as a teaching tool continues to grow in popularity at colleges and universities. We consider, from the students’ perspective, the use of an Internet approach compared to a lecture and lab‐based approach for teaching an introductory course in statistical methods. We conducted a survey of introductory statistics students. Contradictory to what was hypothesized by the authors, they favoured keeping the lecture and lab‐based approach for teaching the class.

Teaching an Advanced Methods Course to a Mixed Audience

I recently introduced an advanced statistical methods course into our curriculum with a two-tiered prerequisite system – students were required to have taken either an introductory statistics course or Calculus II. As a result, this course served as a first course in statistics for some quantitatively strong students and a follow-up course for others. I used a case study approach to introduce and motivate ideas to students new to statistics while engaging and challenging students for whom some ideas were review. Given constraints on resources which exist at smaller schools, a data-centered course such as this offered a good first experience in statistics for math students, one which piqued their interest and set a solid foundation for further study. In addition, the mixed audience led to an intellectually exciting class atmosphere for all students in the class. A quantitative assessment of students' understanding of important statistical concepts is described to provide insight into whether or not students with no statistical experience can comprehend and apply basic ideas as well as if they had taken an introductory statistics class.

Sex, Drugs, and Rock & Roll Survey in a First-Year Service Course in Statistics

Sex, drugs, and rock & roll are topics that arouse almost universal interest among students. We use that interest to motivate the learning of statistical thinking in our first-year Introduction to Statistical Methods course. We have designed a class survey that uses randomized responses. Each person does his/her own randomization with a pair of colored dice. This engages the students in the gathering and analyzing of sensitive data about his/her class in such a way that no individual's personal information is divulged. The survey gives the students a concrete situation where randomization removes the motivation to give false answers to sensitive questions. Instead, the “false” answers come into the data by the randomization which has a known probability structure, so the students can extract estimates of the class proportions without knowing any individual's personal information. This reinforces the message that statistical methods can only be relied on to give meaningful results when there is some known random structure underlying the data.

The use of statistical methods by MBA graduates in South African management and its implications for curriculum design

With this study we aim to identify the degree of penetration of statistical methods in South African management. Consequently, that section of the management population with past exposure to quantitative methods is targetted. Thus the target population was all MBA alumni from South African Business Schools operating in South African companies. A response rate of 27% (408 usable responses) was achieved. The findings of this study correlate highly with those of a similar survey conducted in the United Kingdom in 1991. In addition to reporting these findings, we also sought to examine the implications of these results on future statistical methods course planning. We recommend a change in teaching strategy to promote greater utilization of this discipline in practice.

Book review essay: A second course in statistical methods

Book review essay: A second course in statistical methods

Teaching Statistical Methods to Library School Students at the Master's Degree Level

A substantial number of library educators and library practitioners agree that an introductory course in statistical methods is an important part of librarians' professional education, but implementation of such courses in library school curricula is challenging since a large proportion of students entering library schools do not have strong mathematical backgrounds. In this paper two classroom exercises which deal with sampling, probability, and the Central Limit Theorem are discussed. These exercises have proved to be useful in overcoming some of the difficulties associated with teaching abstract mathematical concepts to library school students at the master's degree level. The teaching methods discussed are readily adaptable to other classroom situations and are useful for demonstrating practical methods for collection and analysis of data and theoretical concepts underlying statistical methods.

Applied Statistics for Economists: A Course in Statistical Methods.

Applied Statistics for Economists: A Course in Statistical Methods.

Biometric Work in Austraila

In Australia the greater part of systematic biometric research is carried out by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research through its various laboratories and institutions in the several states. This Council recruits its statisticians, in general, from University graduates who have had basic training in mathematics and, preferably, advanced training in mathematical statistics. The Council passes these recruits through a preliminary period of practical training and then attaches them to the appropriate research department. University training in statistics at the undergraduate level is provided in most of the Australian universities. In Melbourne, for example, there are three courses available: (1) a pass course in theory of statistics, taken in the second year and following a fairly complete first year course of calculus, in which the standard distributions and tests are fully described and illustrated; (2) an honor course in mathematical statistics, taken either by mathematical graduates or by honor undergraduates who have completed a course in the theory of functions; (3) a descriptive course in statistical methods for research workers, mainly graduates in bacteriology, biochemistry, pharmacology, physiology, etc., many of whom have had a basic training in algebra and the elements of calculus. This training is usually acquired at school, a special subject to meet the needs of such people being included among the matriculation group of subjects. All the above courses are increasing steadily in popularity.

A High School Course in Statistical Methods

When we speak of a course in statistics one usually thinks of a graduate course in some college and in the non-mathematical person it may even provoke a feeling of awe. Can such a course be given to secondary school pupils? The experiment was tried out at the James Monroe High School, New York City.