Nearly all introductory statistics textbooks include a chapter on data collection methods that includes a detailed discussion of both random sampling methods and randomized experiments. But when statistical inference is introduced in subsequent chapters, its justification is nearly always based on principles of random sampling methods. From the…

Psychologists have discovered a phenomenon called "Belief Bias" in which subjects rate the strength of arguments based on the believability of the conclusions. This paper reports the results of a small qualitative pilot study of undergraduate students who had previously taken an algebra-based introduction to statistics class. The subjects in this…

Various terms are used to describe mathematical concepts, in general, and statistical concepts, in particular. Regarding statistical concepts in the Hebrew language, some of these terms have the same meaning both in their everyday use and in mathematics, such as Mode; some of them have a different meaning, such as Expected value and Life…

In this paper we report the results from a major UK government-funded project, started in 2005, to review statistics and handling data within the school mathematics curriculum for students up to age 16. As a result of a survey of teachers we developed new teaching materials that explicitly use a problem-solving approach for the teaching and…

A standard topic in many Introductory Statistics courses is the analysis of dependent samples. A simple graphical approach that is particularly relevant to dependent sample comparisons is presented, illustrated and discussed in the context of analyzing five real data sets. Each data set to be presented has been published in a textbook, usually…

While split-plot designs have received considerable attention in the literature over the past decade, there seems to be a general lack of intuitive understanding of the error structure of these designs and the resulting statistical analysis. Typically, students learn the proper error terms for testing factors of a split-plot design via "expected…

Internationalisation is an important but contentious issue in higher education. For some it means the facilitation of student mobility and an important source of funding for universities, while for others it forms a philosophy of teaching and student engagement, highlighting issues of global inequality. In this study, the papers from a recent…

This article presents statistical power analysis (SPA) based on the normal distribution using Excel, adopting textbook and SPA approaches. The objective is to present the latter in a comparative way within a framework that is familiar to textbook level readers, as a first step to understand SPA with other distributions. The analysis focuses on the…

Since educational statistics is a core or general requirement of all students enrolled in graduate education programs, the need for high quality student engagement and appropriate authentic learning experiences is critical for promoting student interest and student success in the course. Based in authentic learning theory and engagement theory…

The aim was to revise a statistics course in order to get the students motivated to learn statistics and to integrate statistics more throughout a psychology course. Further, we wish to make students become more interested in statistics and to help them see the importance of using statistics in psychology research. To achieve this goal, several…

This paper presents an overview of modalities that can be used to make learning statistics fun. Representative examples or points of departure in the literature are provided for no less than 20 modalities. Empirical evidence of effectiveness specific to statistics education is starting to emerge for some of these modalities--namely, humor, song,…

It is well known that meaningful knowledge of statistics involves more than simple factual or procedural knowledge of statistics. For an intelligent use of statistics, conceptual understanding of the underlying theory is essential. As conceptual understanding is usually defined as the ability to perceive links and connections between important…

Both researchers and teachers of statistics have made considerable efforts during the last decades to re-conceptualize statistics courses in accordance with the general reform movement in mathematics education. However, students still hold misconceptions about statistical inference even after following a reformed course. The study presented in…

Previous research has demonstrated that students' cognitions about statistics are related to their performance in statistics assessments. The purpose of this research is to examine the nature of the relationships between undergraduate psychology students' previous experiences of maths, statistics and computing; their attitudes toward statistics;…

This paper describes a unique graduate-level course that prepares teachers of introductory statistics at the college and high school levels. The course was developed as part of a graduate degree program in statistics education. Although originally taught in a face-to-face setting, the class has been converted to an online course to be accessible…