Considering ethnicity in teaching and learning statistics should I worry about where my students come from英文文献资料.docVIP

JOURNALOFAPPLIEDMATHEMATICSANDDECISIONSCIENCES,7(2),123–131 Copyright c 2003,LawrenceErlbaumAssociates, Inc. Considering Ethnicity in Teaching and Learning Statistics: Should I Worry About Where my Students Come From? DARFIANA NUR? dnur@.au School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Australia KERRIE MENGERSEN kerrie.mengersen@.au School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, The University of Newcastle, Australia Abstract. In the past decade there has been strong interest in the special needs of overseas students attending Australian universities, with respect to teaching and learning. This paper reports on three action research studies that address the question ofwhethersuchissuesremainintheteachingandlearningofstatisticsinparticular. Keywords: ethnicity,overseasstudents,teachingandlearningofstatistics 1. Introduct ion This study has as its overall aim the ident i?cation of di?erences, if they exist, between student s of di?erent backgrounds with respect to learning statistics at two Aust ralian universit ies, namely Queensland University of Technology (QUT ) and The University of Newcastle. The hypot hesis was that these di?erences might arise from four main sources: overall motiva- tion, methods of teaching, methods of assessment and methods of learning. If such di?erences are detected, the quest ion that must be addressed is what strat egies may be useful for providing an equit able framework for learning in this subject. Three separat e studies are report ed in this paper. The ?rst was undert aken through interviews with colleagues and student s at QUT . The second is a result of teaching at the Bandung Inst itute of Technology in Indonesia by the ?rst aut hor. The third was undert aken as a formal survey of undergraduat e and Mast ers of Business Administ rat ion (MBA) student s at The University of Newcastle. In each o