The purpose of this study was to inform the dissemination of a project-based statistics curriculum by identifying institutional and instructor characteristics that predict its implementation. Data were drawn from pre- and post-workshop surveys completed by 67 instructors attending a one-and-a-half-day professional development workshop. Nearly half of the instructors who intended to implement Passion-Driven Statistics following the workshop employed the project-based curriculum by the end of the first full academic year. Teaching at a private institution and endorsing a larger number of positive adjectives regarding teachers’ likely experiences with the model predicted its actual implementation.
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Disseminating inclusive teaching practices: Findings from the Passion-Driven Statistics Project
Passion-Driven Statistics is a project-based, introductory curriculum implemented as a course in statistics, research methods, data science, a capstone experience, and a summer research boot camp with students from a wide variety of academic settings. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the curriculum engages students in authentic projects with large, real-world data sets. Passion-Driven Statistics students were more likely to report increased confidence in working with data and increased interest in pursuing advanced statistics course work compared to students from the traditional statistics course (Dierker et al., 2018a). This presentation draws on pre/post data from 67 instructors attending a Passion-Driven Statistics faculty development workshop. Analyses evaluate instructor characteristics, attitudes, and experiences that predict its implementation. Findings show that nearly half of the instructors who reported being likely to implement passion-driven statistics and a quarter of the overall sample employed the project-based curriculum by the end of the first full academic year following the workshop. Those showing this fast uptake were more likely to be female than those who had not yet implemented (87.5% vs. 55.3%), were more likely to hold a Ph.D. (94.1% vs. 59.2%), and were more likely to be employed by a private rather than public institution (76.5% vs. 46.0%). Those showing fast uptake were also more likely to have been previously using statistical software (i.e., SAS, JMP, R, Stata, Python, or SPSS) in their target course (70.6% vs. 40.0%) and to have greater prior experience with project-based skills and fewer post workshop concerns about their likely success. Results from these analyses will guide recommendations for 1) engaging instructors ready to implement innovation in learning and teaching and 2) supporting those instructors requiring additional time, training and skills. Instructors are the most important resource for promoting innovations and all materials are open educational resources
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- Award ID(s):
- 1820766
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10333413
- Editor(s):
- Scherschel, H.; Rudmann, D.S.
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Teaching tips: A compendium of conference presentations on teaching
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 135-138
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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