Measuring Curiosity in Introductory Statistics Students

Music City Center 

Exploring the nature of how students learn Statistics and how instructors can most effectively help them has been a focal point in statistics education research over the past few decades (Carver et al., 2016). While earlier studies focused on different teaching approaches (e.g., Simon et al., 1976; Federer, 1978), cognitive challenges and misconceptions (e.g., Brewer, 1985; Garfield and Ahlgren, 1988), and students' attitudes (e.g., Pavlick, 1975; Gal and Ginsburg, 1994), recent research has shifted toward understanding the motivational aspects of learning statistics, e.g. interest (e.g., Sproesser, 2016), self-efficacy (e.g., Finney and Schraw, 2003), and intrinsic motivation (e.g., Dun, 2014). We aim to explore curiosity as part of intrinsic motivation, recognizing its potential to enhance students' learning (Pluck and Johnson, 2011).

Curiosity–the desire to acquire knowledge–is integral to learning environments that actively engage students when teachers can use specific techniques to evoke curiosity, enriching the learning atmosphere (Schmitt and Lahroodi, 2008). One of the initial focuses of this cross-institutional collaboration is to see whether we can measure curiosity

Curiosity

Statistics Education

Intrinsic Motivation

Learning

Student Engagement

Teaching Environment 

Section on Statistics and Data Science Education