The incoming statistical knowledge of undergraduate majors in a department of mathematics and statistics

Abstract

Studies have shown that at the end of an introductory statistics course, students struggle with building block concepts, such as mean and standard deviation, and rely on procedural understandings of the concepts. This study aims to investigate the understandings entering freshman of a department of mathematics and statistics (including mathematics education), students who are presumably better prepared in terms of mathematics and statistics than the average university student, have of introductory statistics. This case study found that these students enter college with common statistical misunderstandings, lack of knowledge, and idiosyncratic collections of correct statistical knowledge. Moreover, they also have a wide range of beliefs about their knowledge with some of the students who believe that they have the strongest knowledge also having significant misconceptions. More attention to these statistical building blocks may be required in a university introduction statistics course.

Keywords:

• undergraduate
• incoming knowledge
• centre
• mean
• median
• standard deviation

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Aaron Weinberg and Jason Dolor, who provided excellent feedback during a presentation of this research at the Special Interest Group of the Mathematical Association of America's Conference on Research in Undergraduate Mathematics Education (SIGMAA C-RUME).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.