A comparison of first year statistics units’ content and contexts in a multinational study, with a case study for the validation of ASSIST in Australia

The study of statistics has become widespread throughout many degrees around the world in many universities, as the emphasis on evidence-based decision making has gained momentum in the business world. Students’ approaches to their learning bear significant weight over the skills and understanding that students acquire during their studies. Three distinct learning approaches have been identified by researchers over the last three decades: deep, surface (British Journal of Educational Psychology 46:115–127, 1976) and strategic (Educational Research Journal 5:18–28, 1990). The discrepancy between desired learning outcomes and the aptitude and skills that students of statistics acquire (e.g. International Statistical Review 63:25–34, 1995) is well documented but the underlying reasons for choosing different learning approaches in statistics has only been investigated in limited studies and only from the perspective of a student’s demographics. It is therefore important to understand how unit and student characteristics might encourage students to utilise certain approaches, especially students who do not major in statistics. The aims of the current chapter are therefore to provide a brief review of learning approaches, a detailed description of the multinational study and validation of the Approaches and Study Skills Inventory for Students (ASSIST) as a measure of the learning approaches utilised by a cohort of Australian students of statistics.