Suchergebnisse

AbstractMany undergraduate degrees require the completion of an introductory statistics course, but it is unclear to what extent taking a statistics course improves statistical literacy. We conducted an online survey with a simple random sample of undergraduate students at the University of Waterloo, Canada. We then compared students who have completed at least one statistics course to those who have completed none and found that taking a statistics course did not improve statistical literacy on the questions asked (causation versus correlation, margin of error, and others). Introductory statistics courses may want to address statistical literacy as a learning outcome more explicitly for a better understanding of public policies.

"Near the end of a web survey respondents are often asked whether they have further comments. Such final comments are usually ignored, in part because open-ended questions are challenging to analyse. We explored whether final comments are associated with next-wave attrition in survey panels. We categorized a random sample of final comments in the Longitudinal Studies for the Social Sciences (LISS) panel and Dutch Immigrant panel into one of eight categories (neutral, positive, six subcategories of negative) and regressed the indicator of next-wave attrition on comment length, comment category and socio-demographic variables. In the Immigrant panel we found shorter final comments (55 words) with decreased next-wave attrition relative to making no comment. Comments about unclear survey questions quadruple the odds of attrition and 'other' (uncategorized) negative comments almost double the odds of attrition. In the LISS panel, making a comment (vs. not) and comment length are not associated with attrition. However, when specifying individual comment categories, neutral comments are associated with half the odds of attrition relative to not making a comment." (author's abstract)