This manuscript incorporates recent proposals for enhancing the learning of mathematics by developing authentic statistics instruction and assessment for eighth grade students based on a cognitive apprenticeship approach. The goal of instruction was for small groups to create statistics projects that addressed a meaningful research question. To ensure that criteria for assessing such performance were understood, groups were assigned to two treatments--library of exemplars and text--which differed in the degree to which criteria were explicit. The effectiveness of elaborating on criteria through examples (i.e., library) or text (i.e., text) for enhancing learning was examined. Both treatments demonstrated significant performance gains from pretest to posttest. However, students' understanding of representative sampling was significantly better as a result of receiving the library treatment than the text treatment. Making criteria more elaborate through examples of performance can thus enhance students' understanding of more abstract statistical concepts such as sampling.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.35324 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Lavigne, Nancy C. |
| Contributors | Lajoie, Susanne P. (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Arts (Department of Educational and Counselling Psychology.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001431445, proquestno: MM99913, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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