Fostering Active Learning in Statistics: Research on Students and Graduate Teaching Assistants

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This project will address the established and growing national need (i) for United States citizenry as a whole to develop a better understanding of uses and applications of statistics in order to make informed decisions and (ii) to improve quality and increase quantity of college graduates to enter the workforce in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas with the ability to apply statistics to advance knowledge and information to help keep the Nation equipped with a diverse, globally competitive STEM workforce. Recently, much has been learned about the teaching and learning of undergraduate statistics, and one of the recommendations in statistics education is to foster active learning in the classroom. In connection with this, the investigators will: (a) produce materials to foster active and lasting learning for undergraduate students in introductory statistics courses; (b) train statistics graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) in the content and pedagogical issues needed to implement these materials effectively; and (c) conduct research to understand and generate improvements regarding the effectiveness of the developed materials and the graduate student training. The goals of this project are to produce and disseminate a research-based student manual and instructor's guide along with the associated materials necessary to train GTAs to facilitate active learning experiences. Another outcome of the project will be an addition to the body of research on the professional development needs of GTAs to implement successfully active-learning experiences in undergraduate classrooms. In 2010, over 500,000 students were enrolled in introductory statistics at the undergraduate level in the U.S., an increase of over 65% over the previous decade, and many of these courses are taught by GTAs. So research related to GTA training is imperative. The following research questions will be investigated. (1) To what extent do the active learning labs result in higher levels cognitive learning outcomes, attitudes toward statistics, and successful completion of introductory statistics course? (2) What is the content and pedagogical knowledge needed by GTAs in statistics to facilitate active learning labs and how does their knowledge change as a result of facilitating active learning? The questions will be addressed using mixed methods, repeated measures, and hierarchal models. Materials generated from the project will be portable to other institutions, and the accompanying research will inform these institutions; whereas, information generated from the research on professional development not only will apply to institutions with GTAs, but will also be pertinent to any higher education institution where introductory undergraduate statistics is taught.