Teri J. Murphy

The statistics concept inventory: a pilot study

The statistics concept inventory (SCI) is a multiple choice testing instrument that is being developed to assess student understanding of fundamental statistics concepts and to identify commonly held misconceptions. This study pilot tested the SCI with four different introductory statistics courses with students from a broad range of disciplines. The effects of discipline and gender on performance on the SCI were investigated along with the relationship of mathematics experience, statistics experience, and attitude toward statistics as measured with the survey of attitudes toward statistics (SATS) [Schau, C. et al., 2002]. The results of this study indicate that discipline has a small effect on performance on the SCI. Mathematics majors performed significantly better than social science majors, but no other pair of majors performed significantly different. The effect of gender on performance was significant with males outperforming females. SCI scores were positively correlated with mathematics experience and with attitude scores obtained on the SATS. SCI scores were not found to be correlated with statistics experience.

Gender Equity in Industrial Engineering: A Pilot Study

We report on findings from a pilot study focused on the Industrial Engineering Department at University of Oklahoma where gender equity has been achieved. The study identifies factors that may contribute to gender parity in engineering and science fields.

Research in undergraduate mathematics education

Research in undergraduate mathematics education (RUME), the study of teaching and learning of college mathematics, is a new area of research in mathematics. Information to support this discipline is found in publications from all over the world, in the form of monographs, reports, research guidelines and resource manuals, as well as journal articles. Researchers in RUME require access to materials that are specific not only to their field, but also to the broader literature of mathematics, education, learning theories, instructional strategies, alternative assessment techniques, cognitive development and human behavior. This annotated bibliography is designed to be a template for a comprehensive and up‐to‐date collection of RUME resources. World Wide Web (Web) locations for many of the items are provided, as are descriptions of several Web sites that present information of interest to RUME researchers.