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Abstract
A corpus of current editions of statistics textbooks was assessed to compare aspects and levels of readability for the topics of measures of center, line of fit, regression analysis, and regression inference. Analysis with lexical software of these text selections revealed that the large corpus can be described well by three index variables that summarize the lexical and grammatical complexity of the textbook excerpts. Assessment of those three variables indicates that substantial differences exist in the readability of the topics within textbooks with respect to lexical and grammatical complexity. This analysis suggests that general readability of introductory statistics topics within textbooks varies substantially and it is a recommendation that instructors: (1) be prepared to provide additional support for topics that are more grammatically and lexically complex, and (2) be aware that they can input their instructional materials into LexTutor VP or Coh-metrix as a quick screen for possible readability issues.
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Other Articles on Communication by these Authors
Section:
| Lesser, L. M. (2008). Reunion of broken parts: Experiencing diversity in algebra. In Elliot, Portia C. & Garnett, Elliott Cynthia M. (Eds.), Getting into the mathematics conversation: Valuing communication in mathematics classrooms, pp. 99–107. Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Google Scholar | |
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| Lesser, L. (2014). Staring down stereotypes. Mathematics Teacher, 107(8), 568–571. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Lesser, L. and Kephart, K. (2011). Setting the tone: A discursive case study of problem-based inquiry learning to start a graduate statistics course for in-service teachers. Journal of Statistics Education, 19(3), 1–29. Available at http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v19n3/lesser.pdf. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Lesser, L., Wagler, A., Esquinca, A., and Valenzuela, M. G. (2013). Survey of native English speakers and Spanish-speaking English language learners in tertiary introductory statistics. Statistics Education Research Journal, 12(2), 6–31. Google Scholar | |
| Lesser, L. and Winsor, M. (2009). English language learners in introductory statistics: Lessons learned from an exploratory case study of two pre-service teachers. Statistics Education Research Journal, 8(2), 5–32. Available at http://iase-web.org/documents/SERJ/SERJ8(2)_Lesser_Winsor.pdf. Google Scholar | |
| Wagler, A. and Lesser, L. (2011). Teaching statistics to culturally and linguistically diverse students. Proceedings of the 2011 Joint Statistical Meetings, Section on Statistical Education, 821–830. Google Scholar | |
| Wagler, A. and Lesser, L. (2014). Assessing dimensionality of the communication, language and statistics survey: A multi-group analysis with introductory statistics students near the US-Mexico border. Proceedings of the International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS), July 2014, Flagstaff, AZ. Google Scholar |
