Original Article
Enhancing Statistics Education by Including Qualitative Research1
Irena Ograjenšek,
Iddo Gal,
Irena Ograjenšek
Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Search for more papers by this authorIddo Gal
Department of Human Services, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Search for more papers by this authorIrena Ograjenšek,
Iddo Gal,
Irena Ograjenšek
Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Search for more papers by this authorIddo Gal
Department of Human Services, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
Search for more papers by this author1
This paper is followed by discussions and a rejoinder.
Summary
In this paper, we propose to re-examine the role of qualitative thinking in the early stages of learning statistics and, where relevant, integrate selected elements of qualitative research methods into statistics curricula. We believe that this can help to improve statistics education, deepen desired student understanding of the role of statistics in providing answers to real-world problems and address recurring concerns about student motivation. The paper clarifies the logic underlying our proposal, examines existing connections between qualitative and quantitative research during instruction that often go unacknowledged and can be built upon, explores practical implementation issues and discusses advantages as well as limitations of the proposed approach.
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