Measurement of latent constructs is one of the most challenging tasks in psychological research. Unlike physical variables, latent constructs are not directly observable but are inferred through individuals' responses to a set of items often referred to as measurement instruments, tests, surveys, or assessments. For decades, exploratory factor…

The goal of this research was to provide a general assessment framework of students' statistical reasoning in medicine, then build three scales to assess students' statistical reasoning ability in solving practical medical problems, including Description, Interpretation and Prediction. On that basis, the study designed a set of tools to assess…

This study investigates preservice middle school mathematics teachers' understanding of statistics and probability and provides a cognitive diagnostic assessment of their strengths and weaknesses on these subjects. A statistical reasoning test that included 15 multiple-choice and 5 open-ended items was developed from the perspective of the…

This study aims to identify some perceived gaps in a selection of statistical skills and software abilities of professors of education in United States colleges and universities. In addition to a general U. S. sample, a sample of education professors in Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) was examined in order to understand their…

The statistical computing and graphics software R, despite its many advantages, is sometimes considered too complex to be introduced to undergraduate political science majors. In this article I showed that when taught appropriately, R could be a valuable and well-received aspect of an introductory research methods course. It is important to teach…

The current study examines whether R or SPSS output induces greater initial anxiety in students and whether anxiety toward one or both changes after being taught one type of software output throughout the course. The authors each taught an introductory statistics course, with the first course (n = 43) teaching R output exclusively and the second…

This paper aims to reveal the beliefs of students and fresh university graduates about teaching statistics during their university studies with focus on using statistical software. The objective is to detect the approach of faculties to statistics education and to find out which didactic materials and teaching methods are mainly used. Students'…

One of the most commonly identified obstacles in the learning-teaching of quantitative material is statistics anxiety. Of the factors analysed in relation to statistics anxiety, age and gender have received a substantial proportion of the research focus. Yet there is limited work that systematically examines the possibility of an…

This study examined the characteristics of technology-enhanced statistical tasks written by 75 preservice mathematics teachers who used the ESTEEM project's curriculum materials. In particular, it investigated the extent to which the tasks incorporated three key aspects related to best practices for teaching statistics: (a) analysis of large,…

In an increasingly data-driven world, facility with statistics is more important than ever for our students. At institutions without a statistician, it often falls to the mathematics faculty to teach statistics courses. This paper presents a model that a mathematician asked to teach statistics can follow. This model entails connecting with faculty…

Danny Kaplan is DeWitt Wallace Professor of Mathematics and Computer Science at Macalester College. He received Macalester's Excellence in teaching Award in 2006 and the CAUSE/USCOTS Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. This interview took place via email on March 4-June 17, 2017. Topics covered in the interview include: (1) the current state of…

The Common Core State Standards for Mathematics have a widespread impact on children's statistical learning opportunities. The Grade 6 standards are particularly ambitious in the goals they set. In this critique, experiences helping children work toward the Grade 6 Common Core statistics expectations are used in conjunction with previous research…

Research shows that teachers interpret small differences in student evaluations of teaching as meaningful even when available statistical information indicates that the differences are not reliable. The current research explored the effect of statistical training on college teachers' tendency to over-interpret student evaluation differences. A…

This study examines factorial structure and the gender invariance of the Turkish version of the Survey of Attitudes toward Statistics (SATS-36). The SATS-36 has 36 items measuring six components: affect, cognitive competence, value, difficulty, effort, and interest. Data were collected from 347 university students. Results showed that the Turkish…

The use of confidence intervals (CIs) for making a statistical inference is gaining popularity in research communities. To evaluate college statistics instructors' readiness to teach CIs, this study explores their attitudes toward teaching CIs in elementary statistics courses, and toward using CIs in inferential statistics. Data were collected…