Teaching Statistics and Data Analysis with R

Tucker, M. C., Shaw, S. T., Son, J. Y., & Stigler, J. W. (2023). Teaching statistics and data analysis with r. Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education, 31(1), 18-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/26939169.2022.208941

In this exploratory study, we characterize the attitudes and experiences of 672 undergraduate students as they used our online textbook as part of a 10-week introductory course in statistics. Students expressed negative attitudes and concerns related to R at the beginning of the course, but most developed more positive attitudes after engaging with course materials, regardless of demographic characteristics or prior programming experience. Analysis of a subgroup of students revealed that change in attitudes toward Rmay be linked to students’ patterns of engagement over time and students’ perceptions of the learning environment.