Dierker (AE), Lisa; Alexander, Jalen; Cooper, Jennifer L.; Selya, Arielle; Rose, Jennifer; and Dasgupta, Nilanjana (2016). International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 10: No. 1, Article 2.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.20429/ijsotl.2016.100102
Introductory statistics needs innovative, evidence-based teaching practices that support and engage diverse students. To evaluate the success of a multidisciplinary, project-based course, we compared experiences of under-represented (URM) and non-underrepresented students in 4 years of the course. While URM students considered the material more difficult than non-URM students, URM students demonstrated similar levels of increased confidence in applied skills and interest in follow up courses as non-URM students. URM students were found to be twice as likely as non-URM students to report that their interest in conducting research increased. Increasing student confidence and interest gives all students a welcoming place at the table that will afford the best hope for achieving the kind of statistical literacy necessary for interdisciplinary research.
