Automated feedback on the structure of hypothesis tests

Publication date

2019

Authors

Tacoma, S.G.ISNI 000000050627523X
Heeren, BastiaanISNI 0000000396075391
Jeuring, J.T.ISNI 0000000110063265
Drijvers, PaulISNI 0000000369715867

Editors

Jankvist, Uffe Thomas
van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, Marja
Veldhuis, Michiel

Advisors

Supervisors

DOI

Document Type

Part of book
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License

Abstract

Understanding the structure of the hypothesis testing procedure is challenging for many first-year university students. In this paper we investigate how providing automated feedback in an Intelligent Tutoring System can help students in an introductory university statistics course. Students in an experimental group (N=154) received elaborate feedback on errors in the structure of hypothesis tests in six homework tasks, while students in a control group (N=145) received verification feedback only. Effects of feedback type on student behavior were measured by comparing the number of tasks tried, the number of tasks solved and the number of errors in the structure of hypothesis tests between groups. Results show that the elaborate feedback did stimulate students to solve more tasks and make fewer errors than verification feedback only. This suggests that the elaborate feedback contributes to students’ understanding of the structure of the hypothesis testing procedure.

Keywords

intelligent tutoring systems, domain reasoner, Hypothesis testing, statistics education

Citation

Tacoma, S G, Heeren, B J, Jeuring, J T & Drijvers, P H M 2019, Automated feedback on the structure of hypothesis tests. in U T Jankvist, M van den Heuvel-Panhuizen & M Veldhuis (eds), Proceedings of the Eleventh Congress of the European Society for Research in Mathematics Education. Freudenthal Group & Freudenthal Institute, Utrecht University and ERME, Utrecht, the Netherlands, pp. 2969-2976.