Toward Reform in Introductory Statistics--An Unexplored Domain

• Activity Number: 280
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 : 2:00 PM to 3:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Rossi A. Hassad*+
• Companies: Mercy College
• Keywords: statistics ; psychology ; attitude ; teaching ; learning ; reform

Abstract

There is strong theoretical and empirical evidence that instructors' attitudes toward teaching and learning can inhibit adoption and maintenance of "best practices" and lead to learning difficulties which are widespread among students of introductory statistics. Such difficulties persist at the college level amidst reform aimed at promoting statistical literacy, which is fast becoming a core competency for students in the behavioral sciences. Pioneer statistics educators and researchers insist on identifying instructor training and preparation as the primary barrier to achieving desired learning outcomes. Yet there has been no formal and focused attempt by the reform movement to determine what beliefs and attitudes possessed by instructors of introductory statistics may have been engendered by their academic training and preparation, and the possible influence of these characteristics on teaching approaches and learning outcomes. This paper will outline and discuss from a qualitative perspective, a framework (guided by the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Concerns Based Adoption Model) for exploring and measuring instructors' attitudes in the context of innovation.