Page 211 - Contributed Paper Session (CPS) - Volume 7

CPS2065 Lina Schelin et al.

Assessment in an introductory statistics course –
The challenge of consensus
Lina Schelin, Jessica Fahlén
Department of Statistics, Umeå School of Business, Economics and Statistics,
Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden

Abstract
In this work, we present results and insights from a pedagogical project carried
out at the Department of Statistics at Umeå University, Sweden. The overall
aim of the project was to reach a higher level of consensus within assessment
teams assessing students’ knowledge and skills in an introductory statistics
course. Specifically, the focus was on the part of the course that was assessed
using a written exam. The pedagogical project consisted of two parts that we
present in more details; focus group discussions and the development of an
examination guide. The main conclusions of the project are that there is room
for improvement regarding the level of consensus, that an examination guide
can be an aid working towards consensus, and that it is important to have a
continuous discussion about assessment within the assessment teams.

Keywords
Statistical reasoning; statistical thinking; pedagogical project; written exam;
examination guide

1. Introduction
The interest in statistics education has grown during the last 30 years with
new ideas on how students learn, what topics that are important and how
these topics should be taught (Moore, 1997; Garfield & Ben-Zvi, 2007). A
theoretical framework for describing statistical understanding has been
developed by Ben-Zvi and Garfield (2004), where they describe the concepts
of statistical literacy, statistical reasoning, and statistical thinking. An earlier
framework that defines five dimensions of understanding is presented in
Putnam, Lampert and Peterson (1990). Overall, this educational reform, with a
focus on understanding, has resulted in that more student active learning
methods have been proposed and used. This is also the case for introductory
statistics courses at our university. Several student active learning activities
have successfully been incorporated in our courses.
As the objective of introductory statistics courses partly has shifted, along
with the learning methods, the natural continuation of such process is to also
change the assessment techniques (Chance, 1997). More authentic
assessment techniques (e.g., journals, team projects, minute papers,
portfolios) may be better suited to assess students statistical thinking and
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