Evaluating an Active Learning Approach to Teaching Introductory Statistics: A Classroom Workbook Approach

The study evaluates a semester-long workbook curriculum approach to teaching a college level introductory statistics course. The workbook curriculum required students to read content before and during class and then work in groups to complete problems and answer conceptual questions pertaining to the material they read. Instructors spent class time answering students' questions. The 59 students who experienced the workbook curriculum completed the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS) on the first and last day of the course. These students' post course ratings on the subscales of cognitive competence, affect and difficulty were all significantly higher than their pre course ratings. Additionally, the 59 students' post course ratings for these 3 subscales were also significantly higher than those provided by a comparison group of statistics students (sample size 235). The results indicated that the students experiencing the workbook curriculum (1) had more confidence in their ability to perform and understand statistics, (2) liked statistics more, and (3) thought statistics was more difficult than the comparison group. Additionally, these students' attitude scores were positively correlated with both GPA and performance on a comprehensive final exam. We discuss the various methodological problems faced by classroom researchers and suggest that, in some cases, assessing students' attitudes can be an effective solution to these methodological problems. We conclude that the workbook approach holds promise for teaching introductory statistics courses.