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Article Excerpt
Abstract
Most college students from the behavioral and social sciences are required to enroll in at least one statistics course. Unfortunately, many of these students often attain lower levels of achievement in these courses than in their other classes. Consequently, statistics instructors are faced with the challenge of deciding how to maximize student learning and minimize anxiety and disaffection. Thus, this paper provides a discussion of considerations upon which instructors must reflect in order to address students' needs: context (e.g., undergraduate vs. master's vs. doctoral), content (e.g., measurement vs. evaluation vs. research design), and pedagogical style (e.g., web-based vs. traditional; theory vs. concept vs. application).
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The vast majority of college students from the behavioral and social sciences are required to enroll in at least one statistics course as a required part of their degree programs. Unfortunately, for many of these students, statistics is the most difficult course in their programs of study (Schacht & Stewart, 1990). These students often attain lower levels of achievement in these courses than in their other classes (Onwuegbuzie, Slate, Paterson, Watson, & Schwartz, 2000). Additionally, a significant proportion of these students experience debilitative levels of statistics anxiety while enrolled in statistics courses (Onwuegbuzie & Seaman, 1995). Moreover, many students do not regard statistics to be an essential or relevant aspect of their degree programs, but merely a pervasive hurdle that they must overcome in order to graduate (Gal & Ginsberg, 1994).
Consequently, statistics instructors are faced with the challenge of deciding how to maximize student learning in their classrooms and, at the same time, minimize disaffection and anxiety levels. Indeed, the relatively high levels of underachievement and anxiety that prevail in statistics courses has led to calls for reform in the ways in which students are taught in these classes (Cobb, 1993). Before deciding on how to maximize learning in statistics classes, the instructor must reflect upon the following considerations: the context in which the course is taught, the desired content of the course, and the preferred pedagogical style of the instructor. Considerations regarding the context, content, and pedagogical style are discussed in this paper.
The Context of Teaching Statistics
As noted by Hackett (2001), statistics instructors should "not lose sight of the context in which this teaching occurs" (p. 1). As can be seen in Figure 1, issues related to the context of teaching statistics contains many facets. First and foremost, the statistics instructor should consider the type of institution in which the course is being taught (Figure 1). For example, a Research University likely is significantly different than is a traditional Teaching University with respect to the level of student (e.g., Master's- vs. doctoral-level), type of student body (e.g., statistics vs. non-statistics major), diversity of student body, number of statistics courses in students' program of study, levels of statistics courses (e.g., introductory vs. advanced), status of statistics course (e.g., required vs. elective), and the competence and experience of the statistics instructor. Each of these components, in turn, help to determine the goal of the statistics course. See issue's website
As part of determining the goal of a statistics class, the statistics teacher must decide whether his/her students should be prepared to be consumers or producers of research. For instance, if the instructor decides to help students become consumers of research, then he/she may be more likely to focus on the theoretical or conceptual aspects of statistics. Conversely, to prepare students to be producers of educational research, the statistics teacher likely may devote at least some of the course to the instruction of statistical applications, including the...
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