Title:
STATISTICS CONFIDENCE INTERVAL CONCEPT MOTIVATION: A CONTEXTUAL LINK PROBLEM APPRAISAL FOR ADULT LEARNERS AND EDUCATORS

Authors:
Emmanuel Chinamasa ,Zimbabwe

Abstract:
The purpose of this paper is to present a contextualised problem story which can be used by teachers to motivate adult learners during the introduction of the concept of statistics Confidence Interval for the mean. This is an important contribution to adult statistics educators’ methodology repertory showing how adult learners can be motivated to learn statistics in a social context. The study was guided by Action research principals. Data were collected through desk research for methods of motivating adult learners in statistics. A purposive sample of seventeen mathematics educators ‘in three focus group discussions appraised and evaluated the introduction problem story. Seventy-eight students’ lecturer evaluation reports were important for singling out the Confidence Interval problem as an effective introduction. The study found that: a problem story in which adult students were required to explain how a scanner approximates a child’s date of birth linked statistics application in a social real life context to statistics formula in the classroom. Facilitator and students found themselves using statistics as a tool for objectively justifying a judgment for the child’s paternity in a village court. The problem story concretised the abstract concept of Confidence Interval as a direct social application of statistics. Students ranked the Confidence Interval problem as memorable and effective. It probed them to participate by contributing explanations which were used to concretise the statistics Confidence Interval formula. Female students were emotionally immersed in the discussion. Facilitator was able to use problem analogy to represent the mean and standard error components of the formula for statistics Confidence Interval for the mean in symbolic form. There was learning from concrete to abstract by linking statistics to a social real life context. The answerhad meaning for students and was used to solve a problem. The study encourages lecturers to formulate similar real life problemapplications for the introduction of statistics concepts for adult learners