Use of Projects in the Teaching of Statistics

Murray BlackThe aim of this round table discussion is to examine the merits of a project-based teaching approach for teaching statistics. My proposed research involves the lecturer using a project-based teaching approach that covers all of the prescribed content concepts in a statistics paper. This project would be introduced initially, and then every concept would be taught with respect to its relevance in the project analysis. The taught content would include the method of sampling, data analysis and the drawing of conclusions. Data measuring the level of reasoning in statistics along with student confidences in using statistics would be measured for students taught a similar content in two different ways. It will be hypothesised that students will display significantly greater ability to reason statistically with more confidence than those that have been taught using a traditional topic order approach with a multitude of examples. Yesilay (2000) suggested that students tend to learn more by doing a project than in any regular coursework. Murtonen & Lehtinen (2003) identified linking theory with practice as one of five difficulties experienced by education and sociology students in quantitative methods courses. It is hoped that the use of a project will enable the student to learn more effectively as it will provide a link from theory to a real world problem. Discussions will revolve around the use of a project-based teaching approach in either the assessment or delivery of a paper in statistics. Specific questions addressed will be: How have you used projects in the teaching of statistics? How effective did you find the use of these projects?

Reviewing of research papers

Research papers will be blind reviewed by a panel of peers approved by the conference committee. The main purpose of the refereeing process is to contribute to the growth and development of quality practice in mathematics education research. Thus reviewers are asked to assist authors by providing helpful feedback and to comment on the suitability of papers for presentation at the conference. Accordingly, it will not be assumed that published papers presented at the conference will be as polished as articles in scholarly journals. Referees will be asked to assess papers being reviewed against the accepted norms for scholarly works presented at MERGA conferences, as set out above.

Each conference proceedings’ Editorial Team will exercise discretion over the reviewing process.

Reviewers’ comments will be returned to the authors. Authors whose papers are not accepted for publication may be invited by the editorial panel to present their paper at the conference, with an abstract (only) being published in the proceedings. Papers may be rejected outright, with no opportunity for presentation at the conference in an alternative form.

The MERGA website has detailed advice about criteria for reviewing of MERGA papers, review forms, and examples of strong and poor reviews of different types.

Use of Projects in the Teaching of Statistics

Use of Projects in the Teaching of Statistics

Short Communications

Presentation of short communications

Beth Southwell Practical Implications Award

Recent Winners

Applying for entry into the BSPIA

Judging of the BSPIA

History of the Award

Research Papers

Research papers can take two major forms:

i. Empirical investigations

ii. Theoretical or position papers

Originality

Reviewing of research papers

Presentation of research papers

Research Symposia

Early Career Research Award

Recent Winners

Applying for the Award

Early Bird Review Process