Abstract
Technological skills are increasingly necessary for modern statistical literacy. The ability to operate a statistical package is perhaps the best example. Surprisingly, very little is known about the development of technological skills in statistics education and its impact on statistics courses through the acquisition of these skills. This chapter reports the qualitative findings of a mixed methods study comparing error-management training to guided training for learning to operate a statistical package in an introductory statistics course. Qualitative data was obtained from 15 semi-structured interviews exploring a range of topics, which included students’ attitudes, confidence, emotions, difficulties, need for assistance, problem-solving and suggested improvements. Audio-recordings of interviews conducted face-to-face and over the telephone were transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis. The primary aim of the thematic analysis was to explore the overall student experience and, secondly, to compare the experience of students under the different training approaches, including the interaction with their statistical learning. The outcomes of the thematic analysis are discussed in terms of future research directions.
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Baglin, J., Da Costa, C. (2014). How Do Students Learn Statistical Packages? A Qualitative Study. In: MacGillivray, H., Phillips, B., Martin, M. (eds) Topics from Australian Conferences on Teaching Statistics. Springer Proceedings in Mathematics & Statistics, vol 81. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0603-1_10
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