This paper is from Session 1F: The importance of attitudes in statistics education: sustaining learning processes and outcomes

which comes under Topic 1: Sustaining strengths and building capacity in statistics education

Student attitudes toward statistics from a randomization-based curriculum

Presenter

• Todd Swanson (Hope College, United States)

Co-authors

• Jill VanderStoep (Hope College, United States)
• Nathan Tintle (Dordt College, United States)

Abstract

Recently, a large national (US) sample was used to evaluate attitudes toward statistics among undergraduate students. The majority of the courses in the sample used a similar (AP Statistics) curriculum. Recent interest in the use of randomization-based methods in introductory statistics raises substantial questions about the conceptual effectiveness and attitudes of students in such courses. To begin to better understand the advantages and disadvantages of a randomization-based curriculum, we evaluated student attitudes in courses using randomization curricula and compared these to students using a traditional curriculum. Overall, there were only small, statistically and practically insignificant, differences in student attitudes between the two samples. While randomization approaches remain new, our analysis suggests that these curricula may not be harming nor improving students’ attitudes toward statistics relative to traditional courses in undergraduate courses.