Background

The Statistics Concept Inventory is designed to be in similar format to the Force Concept Inventory, which has been successful in assessing student understanding of Newton’s law and transforming teaching to improve understanding. The SCI development began in Fall 2002, with a 32-item test. The scores and gains (from pre to post) are similar to those found on early testing of the FCI in classes which use the traditional lecture format.

Section Descriptions

Probability (10 questions)

Questions in this section assess the ability to interpret simple probability statements, to understand independence, to recognize independent and non-independent events, and to use knowledge of probabilities and probability distributions to predict outcomes. The topics include:

· probabilities of sequences

· contingency tables, joint and marginal probabilities

· law of large numbers

· independence

· memoryless property

· conditional probability

· properties of the normal distribution

Descriptive Statistics (9 questions)

Questions within this section are focused on data collection, summary and presentation (non-graphical). The items assess the ability to understand sampling and sampling methods, to choose and interpret appropriate descriptive statistics, and to understand measures of central tendency and spread. The topics include:

· random sampling

· stratified sampling

· measures of central tendency: mean, median, mode

· weighted means

· standard deviation

· variance

· percentiles

· outliers

Inferential (11 questions)

Questions in this section are focused on hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, parameter estimation, and choosing appropriate inference tests. The topics include:

· sampling bias

· t-distribution

· defining hypotheses

· inference on the mean

· independent and dependent t-tests

· z-tests

· confidence intervals

· p-values

· sample size effect

Graphical (7 questions)

Questions in this section are focused on the use and interpretation of graphical methods of data summary and presentation. The assess the ability to understand and interpret a variety of graphical formats and relate them to other statistical concepts. The topics include:

· box plots

· histograms

· stem and leaf plots

· cumulative frequency

· central limit theorem

· correlation

· parent distributions of a sample

· variability

· effects of outliers

Advanced Topics (5 questions)

Questions in this section focus on material not generally encountered in an introductory statistics course. The topics include:

· experimental design

· linear regression

· multiple regression

· factorial design

If you are interested in giving the test at your University, contact Teri Reed Rhoads.

Back