This study was designed to address the need for learning opportunities that enable adolescents to become producers and critics of statistics. The producer/critic model (Palinscar & Brown, 1984) was adapted to the context of statistical investigation where questions are formulated and data are subsequently collected, analyzed, and represented to address this question (Graham, 1987). In the producer phase learners design, conduct, and present a group investigation to peers. In the critic phase, groups evaluate investigations produced by unknown peers which are presented in a computer-based learning environment, Critiquing Statistics (CS). The critic phase served as the intervention and was expected to yield three positive outcomes: (1) sophisticated statistical reasoning; (2) a strong understanding of statistical investigation; and (3) a close alignment of evaluations between learners and experts due to successful internalization of criteria. However, the effects of the intervention were also expected to be mediated by the types of questions investigated and the nature of group collaborations. These outcomes were assessed by comparing groups that participated in the critic phase (intervention) with those that did not (control). Investigations produced and evaluated from the first to the second producer phase provided the basis for this comparison. Six groups of three students participated in the study. The descriptive analyses yielded mixed results. As expected, the types of questions investigated and the nature of group collaborations interacted with reasoning and understanding. These two factors accounted for the quantity and quality of reasoning that were higher initially in the control than in the intervention. How groups defined the task based on their questions explained the larger amount of understanding initially found in the intervention compared to the control. However, the intervention's effect was to enhance the quality of understanding on more aspects
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.36632 |
| Date | January 1999 |
| 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 | Doctor of Philosophy (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: 001747395, proquestno: NQ64598, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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