Inspired by Statistics?

This article considers being inspired by statistics as both a learner and a teacher. It looks particularly at a task involving research of Minard's Map, a statistical representation, to create and present a statistical task for a learner. It describes how the use of imagery, and the enthusiasm that developed as the map and its context were explored by the teacher, were passed on to the learner.     

Some Mathematical Expressions of Probability and Statistics

1.1 Some definitions (1)Outcome A result of an experiment is called an outcome. (2)Sample space The set of possible outcomes of an experiment is the sample space for the experiment.     

Effects of a Value-Reappraisal Intervention on Statistics Students’ Motivation and Performance

The authors investigated the effects of an exploratory value-reappraisal intervention on students’ motivation and performance in an undergraduate introductory statistics course. They sampled 82 students from 2 instructors’ sections during both the fall and spring semesters. Students were randomly assigned within each section to either the Value-Reappraisal (VR) or Control condition (C). VR presented messages about the importance of statistics and guided students in exploring potential values of learning statistics. Results showed positive effects of VR on task value, endogenous instrumentality, and a choice-behavior measure of interest. The authors found VR to affect exam performance, but only for students who had a particular instructor. This research helps broaden literature on self-regulation and expectancy-value models of motivation by focusing on the regulation of value perceptions.     

Who is out of school? Evidence from the Statistics South Africa Community Survey

The South Africa Schools Act requires every child to “attend school from the first school day of the year in which such learner reaches the age of seven years until the last day of the year in which such learner reaches the age of 15 years or the ninth grade, whichever comes first” (Republic of South Africa, 1996). This paper addresses three questions in relation to this. First, to what extent has this legal requirement been met? Second, what are the trends in relation to achieving universal access to compulsory education? And third, what are the factors related to and characteristics of those learners of compulsory school age who are not attending? To address these questions, we have made use of the Statistics South Africa dataset, Community Survey 2007. Our analysis suggests that the size of the compulsory age population who are not attending school may be slightly higher than some government sources have suggested. The trend associated with access remains consistent, with the only major change over the past 10 years being the improved levels of enrolment of six and seven year old children. With regard to the factors related to and the characteristics of children who are not attending school, our analysis reveals that certain sub-populations have higher non-attendance ratios: coloured boys; children whose parents, particularly mothers, have died; children born outside South Africa; children who have moved in the past five years; children with disabilities; and children living in some specific rural communities. A number of broad but interrelated factors may account for children not being in school: disability; family structure; children living in households that are eligible for social grants but are not receiving them; and geographic and racial characteristics. To be poor in South Africa may mean exclusion from the mainstream of the economy, but it does not necessarily mean exclusion from access to basic state services like enrolment in schooling or social grants. Children not attending are not only likely to be living in households that are excluded from participation in the mainstream economy, but are also on the fringes of state services; they may also be on the fringes of households. The paper concludes with recommendations for further research to identify reasons why children in these vulnerable sub-populations are less likely to be enrolled.     

Explaining Student Achievement: the Influence of Teachers’ Pedagogical Content Knowledge in Statistics

Statistics is an increasingly important component of the mathematics curriculum. StatSmart was a project intended to influence middle-years students’ learning outcomes in statistics through the provision of appropriate professional learning opportunities and technology to teachers. Participating students in grade 5/6 to grade 9 undertook three tests, a pre-test, a post-test and a longitudinal retention test over a period of 2 years. Their teachers completed a survey that included items measuring pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) for teaching statistics. Despite the development of valid instruments to measure both student and teacher content knowledge and teachers’ PCK, linking teachers’ knowledge directly to students’ learning outcomes has proved elusive. Multilevel modelling of results from 789 students for whom there were 3 completed tests and measures from their teachers indicated that students’ outcomes were influenced positively by their initial teacher’s PCK. Extended participation of teachers in the project also appeared to reduce negative effects of changing teachers.     

Embedded Field Test Item Statistics: Can They Be Trusted for Estimating Student Proficiency?

Assessment items are commonly field tested prior to operational use to observe statistical item properties such as difficulty. Item parameter estimates from field testing may be used to assign scores via pre-equating or computer adaptive designs. This study examined differences between item difficulty estimates based on field test and operational data and the relationship of such differences to item position changes and student proficiency estimates. Item position effects were observed for 20 assessments, with items in later positions tending to be more difficult. Moreover, field test estimates of item difficulty were biased slightly upward, which may indicate examinee knowledge of which items were being field tested. Nevertheless, errors in field test item difficulty estimates had negligible impacts on student proficiency estimates for most assessments. Caution is still warranted when using field test statistics for scoring, and testing programs should conduct investigations to determine whether the effects on scoring are inconsequential.     

MSW Students’ Perceptions of Relevance and Application of Statistics: Implications for Field Education

Many social work students feel anxious when taking a statistics course. Their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors after learning statistics are less known. However, such information could help instructors support students’ ongoing development of statistical knowledge. With a sample of MSW students (N = 101) in one program, this study examined students’ feelings of anxiety and confidence, beliefs about the relevance of statistics to their education and practice, and the relationship of these attitudes and beliefs to their actual statistical competence. The findings indicate that repeated exposure to statistics supports the development of statistical competence, particularly in relevant applied contexts like field education.     

Can Wii Engage College-Level Learners? Use of Commercial Off-the-Shelf Gaming in an Introductory Statistics Course

Technological advancements and growing dependence on media outlets as sources of information compete for the attention of individuals born in a rapidly expanding digital age. As a result, educators using traditional, nondigital teaching methods struggle with keeping students engaged in the classroom. The present study assessed the extent to which a digitally enhanced learning environment can improve student involvement in learning. A traditional behavioral statistics lecture was supplemented with Nintendo Wii video gaming to increase student content knowledge comprehension and engagement with course material. A mixed Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) revealed that those in the video gaming condition improved significantly more than those receiving traditional lecture only. This research suggests that students can learn difficult conceptual material (i.e., statistics) through more novel, interactive teaching methods.     

Teaching Statistics Visually: A Quasi‐Experimental Evaluation of Teaching Chi‐Square through Computer Tutorials 1

This paper examines the effectiveness of computer graphic tutorials in explaining statistical concepts to undergraduates enrolled in two sections of criminal justice research methods. We demonstrated key concepts to a treatment group through a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and Macromedia Flash movies. The students’ statistical skills were measured through a test on mathematical calculation and multiple‐choice questions about chi‐square concepts. Both sections scored similarly on the skills test; however, the treatment group performed better on the conceptual questions. We discuss the implications for teaching methods and statistics and offer several resources that instructors can use in their courses.     

Are the Nonparametric Person-Fit Statistics More Powerful Than Their Parametric Counterparts? Revisiting the Simulations in Karabatsos (2003)

Karabatsos compared the power of 36 person-fit statistics using receiver operating characteristics curves and found the H^T statistic to be the most powerful in identifying aberrant examinees. He found three statistics, C, MCI, and U3, to be the next most powerful. These four statistics, all of which are nonparametric, were found to perform considerably better than each of 25 parametric person-fit statistics. Dimitrov and Smith replicated part of this finding in a similar study. The present article raises some issues with the comparisons performed in Karabatsos and Dimitrov and Smith and points to literature that suggests that the comparisons could have been performed in a more traditional and more fair manner. The present article then replicates the simulations of Karabatsos and demonstrates in several ways that the parametric person-fit statistics l_z and ECI4_z (that were also considered by Karabatsos) are as powerful as are H^T and U3 in identifying aberrant examinees in more traditional and fair comparisons. Two parametric person-fit statistics are shown to lead to similar results as H^T and U3 in a real data example.     

“Visual Type? Not My Type”: A Systematic Study on the Learning Styles Neuromyth Employing Frequentist and Bayesian Statistics

The term learning styles (LS) describes the notion that individuals have a preferred modality of learning (i.e., vision, audition, or kinesthesis) and that matching instruction to this modality results in optimal learning. During the last decades, LS has received extensive criticism, yet they remain a virtual truism within education. One of the major strands of criticism is the fact that only a handful of studies have systematically put the LS assumptions to the test. In this study, we aimed to explore whether learners who are visual types will be better at learning sign-words (i.e., ecologically valid stimuli) compared to auditory and kinesthetic types. Ninety-nine volunteers (67 females, mean age = 28.66 years) naive to Greek Sign Language (GSL) were instructed to learn 20 GSL sign-words. The volunteers further completed two LS questionnaires (i.e., the Barsch Learning Styles Inventory and the Learning Channels Inventory) and they also reported what their LS they believed was. No evidence of a difference in learning sign-words among individuals with different LS (as identified by either of the LS questionnaires or by direct self-report) was found, neither using a frequentist nor using a Bayesian approach to data analysis. Moreover, inconsistencies between the way participants were classified based on the different measures and direct self-report were detected. These findings add further support to the criticism of the LS theory and its use in educational settings. We suggest that research and practice resources should be allocated to evidence-based approaches.     

DAD,FATHER,DADDY,PAPA,PAPPY,PA

As we all know，men in North America are not expected to show their emotions openly. Well，even on Father's Day(the 3rd Sunday in June)，very few grown-up sons ever say to their fathers，“I love you，Dad.”Why not“Dad”？What do American children call their fathers？First of all，it's different in many different parts of North Amer-ica. For example，my father came from Easten Canada from a British-Canadian family. He never wanted us to call him“Father.”To him，it sounded too unfrie…     

浅谈avenue,boulevard,highway,lane,path pavement,road,street,trail,way之异同

众所周知,英语是世界上同义词最丰富的语言之一。在英语学习中,正确地理解同义词,熟练地掌握同义词,对英语学习都大有好处。通过数十年的教学实践,我们感到,对在掌握了三千左右单词的英语学习者来说,常常会遇到相当数量的英语同义词、接踵而来的就是辩异问题,而且,这一问题会随着英语学习的进展而不断增加。因此我们将在此文中对 avenue,boulevard......等同义词做简要解释,希望对英语学习者能有所帮助。     

一,二,三,四,五……

放学了,皮塔亚从幼儿园里出来,兴冲冲地往家里跑去。他一口气跑到自己家楼下,小妹妹芬尔娅正在楼梯口等着他。“我学会数数啦!”皮塔亚兴奋地对妹妹说,“今天在幼儿园,老师教我们数数了,看我数数     

One,Two,Three,Four

门|||||| 厂一一一一—一一一一一一 One,two,three、four, Mary at the cotta沙*door, Five,six,seven,eight, Eatingcherties off aPlate.One,Two,Three,Four@刘世一