Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Education (MAE)

Department

Education

First Advisor

Christopher Smith

Abstract

This research evaluates including write to learn activities in an introductory statistics course. A review of literature has shown writing is an effective tool for shrdent's learning; it also indicated which types of writing have been more effective for student learning, and the difficulties of successfully including writing in statistics curriculum. Based on these findings, writing activities were designed and incorporated into statistics courses taught at a university. A research study was carried out to determine if including rvrite to learn activities in statistics curriculum would be beneficial for nontraditional students, and to obtain feedback on students'perceptions of the write to learn activities. The objectives of the study were to determine if the inclusion of writing activities improved students' ability to set up accurate hypotheses, carry out a hypothesis test, and interpret, in context, the results of a hypothesis test. The research also evaluated if students' perceptions of their learning were impacted by the write to learn activities; and if students' perceptions of their level of statistics anxiety were affected by the write to learn activities. The results of the study showed an increase in the proportion of students who correctly calculated the z-statistic and an increase in the proportion of students who interpreted the results of a hlpothesis test in context. A majority of students had positive impressions of the writing activities,, claiming that the writing exercises were helpful in their learning. In addition, students' anxiety levels were reduced from the beginning of the course.

Identifier

SC 11.MAE.2015.Johnson.KG

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