| Summary: | Research in the field of statistics education grew out of research in psychology, mathematics, education and more recently, in technology. Thus research in the field of statistics education has become an interdisciplinary area of inquiry and studies related to this topic appear in publications across different disciplines. Many researchers are unfamiliar with the work being done outside their own disciplines, and if familiar, find it challenging to build on the published knowledge since relevant studies might use different definitions, research questions and research methodologies. Concerns like these emphasise the need for an adequate mapping and organisation of research studies pertaining to statistics education.
Another concern revealed by studies that focus on the teaching and learning of statistics is that students are unable to reason correctly about important statistical concepts after formal, traditional teaching. Many researchers agree that the use of specific technology tools can help to improve students' understanding and reasoning of particular concepts. However, there seems to be a lack of empirical research on the effect of the use of technology tools on students' understanding of and reasoning about statistical concepts, and in particular, the concept of statistical inference. Thus, more research is needed in this regard.
The purpose of this interdisciplinary study (higher education studies and statistics) was two-fold. First, the researcher undertook an extensive document analysis in order to reveal the current developments, trends and patterns in the field of statistics education research. Documents were explored in a non-interactive way by means of a qualitative content analysis design. The sample of documents included 138 articles appearing in three leading statistics education journals and 24 doctoral dissertations in statistics education, published in the period 2005 to 2009. The content analysis yielded rich data describing the field of statistics education research according to themes and topics of the research covered in the documents; methods and methodologies employed in the research; theories and statistical concepts covered; and the prominent countries and disciplinary settings where statistics education is studied. Results from the document analysis shed light on the emphasis in statistics education research, on areas in need for future research and on understanding the development of statistics education research (including the use of technology). This research can serve as a valuable resource for new and current researchers in the field. Second, as a consequence of the first investigation, the researcher conducted an empirical investigation to determine whether there is a relationship between computer-aided teaching and learning (CAT/L) and students' performance and statistical reasoning related to the concept of statistical inference. The empirical study was preceded by an extensive literature review on the use and effectiveness of CAT/L in statistics education. The empirical investigation further endeavoured to determine whether the use of a CAT/L tool had a positive effect on students' learning experience, enjoyment of statistics and attitude towards statistics. The empirical study was located within a quantitative paradigm, with some qualitative enhancement. By using a quasi-experimental design, comparisons between a treatment (n=36) and control group (n=80) of statistics students at a higher education institution, were made. The treatment group used Excel as a computer-aided technology tool and the two groups were assessed through tutorials, semester tests and the CAOS test (designed to assess students' statistical reasoning skills). A survey was completed by the treatment group at the end of the semester. Data were analysed by conducting univariate (one-way ANOVA) and multivariate (ANCOVA) analyses. In addition, the coefficient of determination and adjusted means were examined, while data mining with decision trees and a stepwise model selection procedure were also used in the data analysis.
The results revealed that the use of technology in an introductory statistics module had a substantial and statistically significant positive effect on academic performance, but only a modest, but statistically significant positive effect on statistical reasoning. In addition, results from a survey design (questionnaire), used to gather quantitative and some qualitative information regarding the experience of students exposed to CAT/L, indicated that learning with the intervention was well accepted and successful and that students' attitude towards statistics and CAT/L changed from mainly negative to mainly positive,
As a whole, this study can be seen as a contribution to the advancement of the scholarship of teaching and learning in general, and of scholarship in statistics education in particular. In accordance with the research findings and limitations of the empirical study, recommendations are made for future research as well as ways in which the findings could be disseminated as widely as possible.
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