Open AccessPERSONAL EPISTEMOLOGIES OF STATISTICIANS IN ACADEMIA: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY
Author(s) -
Aurel H. Diamond,
Andreas J. Stylianides
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
statistics education research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.538
H-Index - 14
ISSN - 1570-1824
DOI - 10.52041/serj.v16i2.195
Subject(s) - psychology , statistics education , exploratory research , mathematics education , statistical analysis , field (mathematics) , argument (complex analysis) , exploratory data analysis , sociology , statistics , social science , mathematics , biochemistry , chemistry , pure mathematics
In this exploratory study, we investigated the personal epistemologies of statisticians in academia with the aim of offering some insight into what might be an availing epistemology for learning statistics. Findings from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six academics in the UK currently researching within the field of statistics showed that their statistical personal epistemologies were consistent with constructivist theories of learning. Based on these findings, we proposed an integrated model to represent participants’ beliefs about knowledge and knowing in statistics. Furthermore, we found differences between participants’ mathematical and statistical personal epistemologies, and we offered an argument for domain-specificity of personal epistemologies. The implications of our findings for research in statistics education and statistical misconceptions are discussed.First published November 2017 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives