Identifying and Addressing Student Difficulties in an Introductory Statistics Course

Name: Identifying and Addressing Student Difficulties in an Introductory Statistics Course

Time & Date: 11:00 A.M., Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Location: Rm. 301, Leonard S. Klinck Bldg. (LSK)

Description: It is widely recognized that students encounter difficulties understanding certain concepts met in introductory Statistics courses. Identifying the extent and nature of these difficulties is not easy, and devising effective methods of addressing student problems presents real challenges. Here we discuss approaches to assessing student understanding of statistical concepts via post-course interviews and the analysis of responses to examination questions. Methods of correcting student confusion are described, including a discussion of experiments involving laboratory activities intended to increase understanding of sampling distributions.

Speakers will be Bruce Dunham and Eugenia Yu (Department of Statistics).

For more information on the UBC Department of Statistics, please visit their website at http://www.stat.ubc.ca.

To learn more about this and other Celebrate Learning events, visit us at celebratelearning.ubc.ca.