The treatment of kurtosis in textbooks is both sparse and contradictory with applications rarely discussed. To address this, an easily understood definition of kurtosis is introduced and important applications are demonstrated. Two different approaches to teaching kurtosis are presented based on a financial application.

It is well known that students of inferential statistics find the hypothetical, probabilistic reasoning used in hypothesis tests difficult to understand. Consequently, they will also have difficulties in understanding "p"-values. It is not unusual for these students to hold misconceptions about "p"-values that are difficult to…

This longitudinal study of 78 Canadian English-speaking students examined the applicability of the stability, cumulative, and compensatory models in reading comprehension development. Archival government-mandated assessments of reading comprehension at Grades 3, 6, and 10, and the Canadian Test of Basic Skills measure of reading comprehension…

Many adults who need an understanding of statistical concepts have limited mathematical skills. They need a teaching approach that includes as little mathematical context as possible. Iterative participatory qualitative research (action research) was used to develop a statistical literacy course for adult learners informed by teaching in…

In this paper, we exploit a rich longitudinal data set to explore the forces that, during high school, shape the development of aspirations to attend university and achieve academic success. We then investigate how these aspirations, along with grades and other variables, impact educational outcomes such as going to university and graduating. It…

In this paper, we propose a new prediction analysis model which combines the first order one variable Grey differential equation Model (abbreviated as GM(1,1) model) from grey system theory and time series Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model from statistics theory. We abbreviate the combined GM(1,1) ARIMA model as ARGM(1,1)…

This study uses Partial Credit Rasch analysis to study a complex data set of student responses to survey items relating to chance and data. The items were administered in the classroom and collected from 1993 to 2003 in the Australian state of Tasmania. Data were collected from a total of 5514 individual students across Grades 3 to 11 over the…

The volume is the second of two and presents additional statistical analyses of data discussed in the first, which presented 1960 and 1961 census data from 53 countries in an attempt to identify and quantify factors which determined the occupational and educational structure of the labor force. The second volume consists of eight chapters: (1) a…

This volume examines the teaching of statistics in the whole range of education, but concentrates on primary and secondary schools. It is based upon selected topics from the Second International Congress on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS 2), convened in Canada in August 1986. The contents of this volume divide broadly into four parts: statistics in…