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Activity Number:
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316
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Type:
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Contributed
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Date/Time:
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Wednesday, August 14, 2002 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
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Sponsor:
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Section on Statistical Education*
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| Abstract - #300926 |
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Title:
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Implementing a Computerized Tutor in a Statistical Reasoning Course: Getting the Big Picture
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Author(s):
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Oded Meyer*+ and Marsha Lovett
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Affiliation(s):
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Carnegie Mellon University and Carnegie Mellon University
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Address:
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5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15213, USA
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Keywords:
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cognitive tutor ; statistical reasoning ; statistics education
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Abstract:
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Many schools, like Carnegie Mellon University, are now teaching introductory statistical reasoning courses in a way that emphasizes conceptual understanding of the basic ideas of data analysis. There are several challenges in teaching such a course; foremost among them is the difficulty of conveying a sense of the "Big Picture" of statistics. This paper describes a computerized learning tool called SmartLab that we have developed to help overcome this obstacle. Specifically, SmartLab highlights the common structure across data-analysis problems and makes explicit many of the skills that were previously hidden from students' point of view. Moreover, SmartLab is a cognitive tutor and thus provides students with individually tailored feedback and hints as they solve data-analysis problems. These pedagogical features of SmartLab can be thought of as a mental scaffolding that supports students' knowledge as it is constructed through practice. Experimental results indicate significant learning gain under SmartLab, especially in students' conception of problem structure and in their choice of appropriate analysis methodology (both historically difficult areas to teach effectively).
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