Equity for Underprepared Intro Stat Students: Complex Instruction and Corequisite Design

• Activity Number: 49 - Creating a Diverse and Inclusive Field One Student at a Time
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Sunday, July 28, 2019 : 4:00 PM to 5:50 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics and Data Science Education
• Author(s): Alana Unfried*
• Companies: California State University, Monterey Bay
• Keywords: statistics education; complex instruction; corequisite; introductory statistics; diversity

Abstract

At California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB), traditionally around 40 percent of students begin college in math remediation courses prior to entering a general education math course such as introductory statistics. In 2018, the entire California State University System switched to implementing either stretch or corequisite models for all developmental math support, rather than offering math remediation. The monumental shift to a corequisite structure at CSUMB has invited a new population of students into the introductory statistics classroom who previously never made it past math remediation. Over the past academic year, CSUMB introductory statistics courses adopted Complex Instruction to effectively support student learning in such a mathematically-diverse environment. Complex instruction is a combination of pedagogical strategies that attend to problems of social inequality in the classroom through intentionally designed participation structures and group-worthy tasks. This talk will discuss the motivation behind both corequisite design and Complex Instruction, as well as practical tips on their implementation in order to broaden participation in statistics.