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Title: Redesigning the introductory psychology course to support statistical literacy at an open-admissions college.
The American Psychological Association Guidelines for the Psychology Major emphasize the development of scientific inquiry and critical thinking skills. We present findings from a department-wide effort to promote statistical literacy in introductory psychology at a nonselective public college. We examined course outcomes across 10 course sections taught in person or online with varying enrollments (total N = 485 students). Instructors administered online assignments about psychological research via Qualtrics, featuring statistics exercises and Excel worksheet activities. As a low-stakes introduction to statistical reasoning, instructors graded work based on completion rather than accuracy. Students completed the majority of Qualtrics assignments and about half of the Excel worksheets. As potential factors related to student outcomes, we considered external factors, internal factors, and student skills, and included demographic factors as control variables. Students with greater work obligations and those who completed work on smartphones or tablets (external factors) completed fewer assignments than their peers. Students with higher self-efficacy and greater anxiety about statistics (internal factors) completed more Qualtrics assignments, and those with higher statistics knowledge and reading comprehension (student skills) completed more Excel worksheets. Course section characteristics (modality, enrollment) were unrelated to student outcomes. The results demonstrate the feasibility of using low-stakes assignments to promote statistical literacy while emphasizing psychology as an empirical science. Future studies should assess learning gains associated with the curriculum and identify specific pedagogical features (e.g., feedback, active learning) that increase student engagement.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2318196
PAR ID:
10516574
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
American Psychological Association
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Psychology
ISSN:
2332-2101
Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
statistical literacy introductory psychology low-stakes assignments active learning data analysis
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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