28th Annual Student Research Conference
Defining, conceptualizing, and measuring undergraduate statistical consulting as a transformative learning experience
Christopher L. Zerr
Dr. Scott Alberts and Dr. Hyun-Joo Kim, Faculty Mentors
Transformative learning, which aims at altering perspectives, skills, and attitudes, is a vital component to 21st century education, especially in statistics. Transformative learning in the undergraduate setting can occur a number of ways, including through internships, research, service-learning, and study abroad opportunities. The Center for Applied Statistics and Evaluation (CASE) at Truman State University is a combination of these types of transformative learning experiences. CASE is an undergraduate statistical consulting center whose main purpose is to assist undergraduates with developing a conceptual understanding of statistics that leads to appropriate usage in context, as opposed to merely comprehending calculations and equations. We outline common themes of these different transformative learning components and argue that CASE encapsulates all of them, and we also provide a metric to quantitatively measure these in undergraduate students. Finally, we provide future outlooks for undergraduate statistical consulting and suggest a model for how best to achieve them.
Keywords: Transformative learning, Statistics, Consulting, Education
Topic(s):Statistics
Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 12-1
Location: GEO-SUB
Time: 3:30