Department of Mathematics

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Browsing Department of Mathematics by Subject "Instruments"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Challenges assessing statistics attitudes​: Opportunities and costs
    (2020) Whitaker, Douglas
    ccles and colleagues’ Expectancy-value theory (EVT; 1983) has been widely-used in education research, and the cost component of this framework has recently been the subject of increased research. While advances in measuring the cost component have been made (e.g., Flake et al., 2015), an on-going instrument development project for measuring attitudes in statistics education has encountered difficulties that motivate a deeper look at this construct. An overview of cost in EVT, the current state of measuring it in statistics education, and plans for a new study are described. The first project-specific data are to be collected in Spring 2020.
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    Environment matters: Institution, course and pedagogy
    (2019-05) Bond, Marjorie; Batakci, Leyla; Bolon, Wendine; Whitaker, Douglas
    A new survey, E-SOMAS (Environmental Survey of Motivational Attitudes towards Statistics), is a part of a family of instruments, that will measure environmental characteristics related to affective constructs in statistics education. These instruments will include student and instructor surveys (S-SOMAS and I-SOMAS, respectively). Our environmental model has two factors with three elements in each. The two factors are split by the instructor’s locus of control. The first factor, institutional and course characteristics, while influenced by the instructor, is not fully within the instructor’s control and any type of control will vary between instructors. Factor 1’s elements are (a) institutional characteristics, (b) course characteristics, and (c) learning environment. Our link between I-SOMAS and E-SOMAS is the second factor, enacted classroom behaviors, which consists of (d) general pedagogy practices, (e) statistics-specific pedagogy practices and (f) teacher-student relations. Readers will be encouraged to comment, verify, and suggest variables which we will document.
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    Evaluating validity evidence for instruments in statistics education
    (2019-05) Harrell-Williams, Leigh; Whitaker, Douglas
    This Breakout Session will focus on evaluating validity evidence supporting the interpretation of scores from instruments. While specific instruments will be used as examples, this session aims to build skills for assessing validity evidence in general. The contemporary view of validity evidence is both broader and deeper than ‘an instrument measuring what it is supposed to measure.’ However, statistics education is rife with incomplete views surrounding the development and use of instruments, and the result is a myriad of interpretations and conclusions that are not supported by appropriate evidence. This Breakout Session will focus on supporting the audience in critically evaluating validity evidence supporting the use of statistics education instruments as reported in the literature. As part of this evaluation of validity evidence, attention will be given to how a lack of evidence threatens interpretations and conclusions as well as how this can be addressed.
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    Measuring statistics attitudes and anxieties
    (2019-05) Whitaker, Douglas; White, Aaron
    Both attitudes and anxiety have long been studied in the statistics education literature. Recently, efforts have been taken to clarify what is meant by these constructs (e.g. Chew & Dillon, 2014). Expectancy Value Theory (EVT; Eccles, 1983) is one framework for relating affective constructs to student achievement that has seen widespread use such as in the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (Ramirez et al., 2012; Schau, 2003). To clarify the relationship between statistics anxiety and attitudes, several surveys were administered to introductory statistics students including the Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS; Cruise et al., 1985), a measure of opportunity cost (Flake et al., 2015), and several scales currently in development. (The data will be collected in Spring 2020.) This poster will discuss the potential relationships between EVT and statistics anxiety.