happy new year and welcome to…
“Setting the Tone from Day 1”CAUSEweb Activity Webinar January 24, 2012
based on Lesser/Kephart paper in Nov. 2011 J. of Statistics Education(partial support from NSF DUE-0618861)
Dr. Larry Lesser, Professor
The University of Texas at El Paso
instructional cycle* Lesser & Kephart (2011)
Problem is presented
Initial Individual Reflection
Small Group (3-4 students each) discussionWhole Class Discussion (with instructor as facilitator and co-learner)
optional: further individual reflection
* variation on “think-pair-share” or
“1-2-4-whole group” structures
a good problem…• Has context relevant to student backgrounds
• Has minimal (math) prerequisites
• Is efficient to pose• Is efficient to compute (e.g., simple numbers; Lesser, 2011)
• Will be revisited/deepened later in course
• Is open to multiple approaches, representations, interpretations
• Stimulates habits of mind/questioning
• Shows statistics as “numbers with a context”
• May reveal a misconception
For the following problems…
• Try it yourself
• Try it as you imagine your students might
• Consider what assumptions are being (perhaps implicitly) made
• Try generating multiple approaches
• Reflect upon any big picture lessons or themes about taking/doing statistics this problem raises
Who did better, Amy or Bob?(Lesser 2001, 2011)
fall fall spring spring
TESTS Amy Bob Amy Bob
passed 3 1 2 3
failed 5 2 1 2
taken 8 3 3 5
“Average Class Size” Exploration (Lesser, 2009, 2010a)
185 students are divided among 7 rooms as: 20, 20, 20, 25, 30, 35, and 35.
What would you say is the ‘average class size’?
simpler substitute dataset:
20 students divided among 4 rooms as:
3, 3, 4, and 10
Which of these 5 countries did best at the 2008 Summer Olympics? (Isaacson, 2011)
Nation Gold Silver Bronze
Australia 14 15 17
Bahamas 0 1 1
China 51 21 28
United States 36 38 36
Zimbabwe 1 3 0
How to adapt for:
• Shorter periods
• Larger classes
• Other days of the course
• Other courses
