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Effects of reflection prompts on learning outcomes and learning behaviour in statistics education

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Abstract

Starting from difficulties that students display when they deal with correlation analysis, an e-learning environment (‘Koralle’) was developed. The design was inspired by principles of situated and example-based learning. In order to facilitate reflective processes and thus enhance learning outcomes, reflection prompts were integrated into the learning environment. A total of 57 university students were randomly assigned to two experimental conditions: 28 students were prompted to give reasons for their decisions while working within the learning environment (EG 1); and 29 students dealt with Koralle without being prompted (EG 2). The control group consisted of 67 students who had already attended regular statistics lectures but had no access to the e-learning environment. EG 1 scored significantly higher in the posttest than EG 2, and the effect was practically relevant and sustainable. Reflection prompts did not influence time on task, task choices and motivational outcomes. Both experimental groups clearly outperformed the control group.

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Notes

  1. Effect sizes were classified according to the conventions specified by Cohen (1988): η² ≤ 0.05: small effect; 0.06 ≤ η² ≤ 0.13: medium effect; η² ≥ 0.14: large effect.

  2. Adjusted degrees of freedom because of heterogeneous variance. For all comparisons between experimental and control group, p values were also calculated using a non-parametric test (Mann–Whitney U) because of differences in sample sizes. The U-test results did not differ from the results of the t-tests.

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  1. Institute of Education, Saarland University, P.O. Box 151150, 66041, Saarbrücken, Germany

    Robin Stark & Ulrike-Marie Krause

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Stark, R., Krause, UM. Effects of reflection prompts on learning outcomes and learning behaviour in statistics education. Learning Environ Res 12, 209–223 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-009-9063-x

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