Incorporating Writing into Statistics

Abstract

This chapter describes the work of a statistician who, after a career outside the academy, became a teacher of statistics in an urban university. To determine if the inclusion of write-to-learn activities improved her working adult students’ ability to communicate the results of hypothesis tests in context, the author reviewed the literature on using writing-to-learn and conducted a research study on incorporating such activities in an introductory statistics course. Students’ perceptions of the write-to-learn activities were also obtained. The study showed that the write-to-learn activities helped students become better at communicating statistical results in context, and students had positive impressions of the writing activities, claiming that the writing activities were helpful in their learning. Suggestions are offered on how to best incorporate write-to-learn activities in an introductory statistics class.