The Language of Statistics

Rangecroft, Margaret

doi:10.1111/1467-9639.00080

Cited by 21 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 3 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One of the first steps in addressing lexical ambiguity in the classroom is for instructors to recognize words that have lexical ambiguity and try to preempt difficulties by careful use of language in their teaching (Rangecroft 2002;Albert 2003;Brown and Spang 2008;Lesser and Winsor 2009). In addition, instructors should be aware of students' everyday use of lexically ambiguous words and should address explicitly in the classroom the differences in meaning (Rangecroft 2002;Brown and Spang 2008;Lavy and Mashiach-Eizenberg 2009), through the use of multiples modes and representations (Brown and Spang 2008;Lesser et al 2009Lesser et al , 2013, and by exploiting the differences between the uses (Adams et al 2005). Instructors should help students to build their voices in the technical domain (Lemke 1990;Durkin and Shire 1991a;Adams et al 2005;Brown and Spang 2008) through vocabulary activities and writing assignments (Durkin and Shire 1991a;Adams et al 2005;Lesser et al 2009Lesser et al , 2013.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Statistical Literacy by Exploiting Lexical Ambiguity of Technical Terms

Kaplan¹,

Rogness²

2018

Numeracy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Instructional inattention to language poses a barrier for students in entry-level science courses, in part because students may perceive a subject as difficult solely based on the lack of understanding of the vocabulary. In addition, the technical use of terms that have different everyday meanings may cause students to misinterpret statements made by instructors, leading to an incomplete or incorrect understanding of the domain. Terms that have different technical and everyday meanings are said to have lexical ambiguity and statistics, as a discipline, has many lexically ambiguous terms. This paper presents a cyclic process for designing activities to address lexical ambiguity in statistics. In addition, it describes three short activities aimed to have high impact on student learning associated with two different lexically ambiguous words or word pairs in statistics. Preliminary student-level data are used to assess the efficacy of the activities, and future directions for development of activities and research about lexical ambiguity in statistics in particular and STEM in general are discussed.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Increasing Statistical Literacy by Exploiting Lexical Ambiguity of Technical Terms

Kaplan¹,

Rogness²

2018

Numeracy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…If an interpreter lacks knowledge of discipline-specific language, this may cause issues with conveying the concept, especially when the term has a different common meaning. For example, in statistics the word "significant" can be confusing due to its multiple meanings (Rangecroft, 2002). Students may already be aware of the common meaning (important); fewer have seen its appearance in a mathematical or scientific context (significant figures), which still differs from its statistical meaning (data that are unlikely to occur by chance).…”

Section: Project Thinking Cap: Communication Access and Persistence Amentioning

confidence: 99%

Supplemental Online Learning Tools (SOLTs) to Support Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in Introductory Statistics Courses

McClive¹,

Mousley²,

Marchetti³

et al. 2020

JSESD

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research in most Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines uses statistical methods. Thus as students develop into research scientists, introductory statistics serves as a gateway course. If students struggle to incorporate statistics into their knowledge base, they may be effectively kept from careers that rely on statistics. Students who are Deaf or Hard-of-Hearing (DHH) learn differently and thus may lag behind their hearing counterparts in mainstream classrooms. In part, a gap in language knowledge can impede the understanding of statistics topics. What is a variable? What does it mean to have a distribution? With sign language interpreters and other support services, many mainstream instructors believe that DHH students have equal access to learning in their classrooms. Yet variations of instructional skill, interpreter knowledge of the discipline, and the lack of alternative representations of content often result in access that falls short of "equal". This paper describes the work of a team of faculty and student researchers seeking best practices for creating supplemental online learning tools. Starting from a list of prioritized challenging topics in statistics, the team developed a number of strategies and produced a pilot set of instructional videos. Formative feedback led to revised videos, which provided a significant gain in knowledge for DHH students when shown in an experimental setting.

show abstract

“…While the role of language in the teaching and learning of mathematics is now well established in the literature (Bay-Williams & Herrera, 2007;Clarkson, 2007;Hoffert, 2009;Moschkovich, 2007;Planas & Civil, 2013), there have been a few research studies about language issues in learning statistics (Kaplan, Fisher, & Rogness, 2009;Lavy & Mashiach-Eizenberg, 2009;Parke, 2008;Rangecroft, 2002) but these did not involve English Language Learners.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Language Challenges and Strategies for English Language Learners in Statistics Education: An Overview of Research in This Field

Sharma¹

2019

eqr

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The Education Quarterly Reviews is an Open Access publication. It may be read, copied, and distributed free of charge according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. The Asian Institute of Research Education Quarterly Reviews is a peer-reviewed International Journal. The journal covers scholarly articles in the fields of education, linguistics, literature, educational theory, research, and methodologies, curriculum, elementary and secondary education, higher education, foreign language education, teaching and learning, teacher education, education of special groups, and other fields of study related to education. As the journal is Open Access, it ensures high visibility and the increase of citations for all research articles published. The Education Quarterly Reviews aims to facilitate scholarly work on recent theoretical and practical aspects of Education.

show abstract

The Language of Statistics

Abstract: Summary The discussion of problems associated with the use of language, specifically vocabulary and symbolism, is extended from the teaching and learning of mathematics to the particular area of statistics.

Cited by 21 publications

References 3 publications

Increasing Statistical Literacy by Exploiting Lexical Ambiguity of Technical Terms

Increasing Statistical Literacy by Exploiting Lexical Ambiguity of Technical Terms

Supplemental Online Learning Tools (SOLTs) to Support Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students in Introductory Statistics Courses

Language Challenges and Strategies for English Language Learners in Statistics Education: An Overview of Research in This Field

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About