Welcome to my Research and Scholarship
page! Below, you
will find links to project pages for some of my projects.
Note: to return to this site from any of the project pages, click on my name listed under project team.
My work applies theories and methods from the cognitive and learning sciences to investigate the act of learning and doing statistics, and critically examines statistics education research theories and methodologies.
Generally speaking, my work falls into one of three categories:
In my own projects, or when working with others, I seek to be a part of interdisciplinary teams founded on mutual curiosity and passion – “I cannot imagine being a sole researcher on any project or keeping ideas to myself” (Garfield, 2013, p. 6)1.
AI tools are here to stay. How do they change the way statistics can
be practiced and taught? How do we ensure AI drives students’ learning
of statistics, as opposed to being used as a crutch to circumvent the
development of statistical thinking skills?
For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/HarnessingAI/.
However, graphs we see in our every day lives are often quite
different than the graphs students are exposed to in introductory
statistics courses. Can students interpret what authentic
graphs they may see in their every days do and do not reveal? How we can
measure their skills in doing so? How to support the development of
these skills?
For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/authenticliteracy/.
Statistics is not a set of this-or-that rules. It is all about
uncertainty and variability. A key component of statistical thinking is
to accept this inherent uncertainty. How ready are students to do this?
How accepting of uncertainty to they walk out of statistics classes? Are
students’ views about statistics consistent with statisticians’ views?
For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/acceptuncertainty/.
How do the statistically significant and not
statistically significant category labels affect our cognition of
statistical measures like p-values and Cohen’s d
effect sizes?
For more, visit RaoVNV.github.io/p-values/.
How do humans cluster sets of points? Is their clustering reliable?
What individual and group differences are there in human clustering?
What other cognitive processes is clustering related to?
For more,
visit RaoVNV.github.io/clustering/.
Garfield, J. (2013). Cooperative learning revisited: From an instructional method to a way of life. Journal of Statistics Education, 21(2).↩︎