Childs Play Reasoning with Multidimensional Data

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Childs Play - Reasoning with Multidimensional
Data

• Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson and
• Sean McCusker
• jim.ridgway_at_durham.ac.uk
• University of Durham
• www.dur.ac.uk/smart.centre/

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Childs Play Reasoning with Multi-Dimensional
Data

• Play therapy
• Alcohol, Fast Birds, and Sexually Transmitted
  Infections
• Research
• Testing smart 9 and 13 year olds they can
  reason with multidimensional data
• Generalising to representative students they
  can do it too
• What dont we know
• The threat of education
• What are we doing about it all

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Childs Play

• Sexually Transmitted Infections
• Alcohol
• Fast Birds
• http//www.ic.nhs.uk/pubs/alcoholeng2006/alcoholta
  bles/file
• www.hpa.org.uk/infections/topics_az/hiv_and_sti/ep
  idemiology/datatables2005.htm
• In collaboration with CCEA, QCA and The
  Information Centre

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Childs Play - Research

• Oxygen
• Testing smart 9 and 13 year olds
• Generalising to representative students

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From Watson and Callingham
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(No Transcript)
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The Threat of Education

• Condorcet le savoir liberateur and all that
• UK students are taught 1930s statistics (Ridgway
  et al, 06)
• the 1930s principle was fine take something of
  interest and mathematise it

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Childs Play What dont we know?

• What do/can people understand from multivariate
  data in an emerging field?
• What can people learn as they interact with data?

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Some Heuristics for Playing

• Critique the quality of the data
• Describe and explore before you model and explain
• Check that the effect size is a lot bigger than
  the likely measurement error
• Look for interactions, and think about data
  surfaces
• Think about possible confounding variables
• Disaggregate data are the patterns the same?
• Be cautious about causality especially in
  observational data

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Our Current Work

• Interface design
• Generic shells as freeware
• Empirical studies on difficulty
• Curriculum development
• Modelling disease spread
• Risk taking by young people
• Drugs, sex, obesity, alcohol abuse
• Conceptual analyses
• What is worth knowing?
• What develops?
• How?
• Collaborating! - http//www.dur.ac.uk/smart.centr
  e

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Childs Play - Reasoning with Multidimensional
Data

• Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson and
• Sean McCusker
• jim.ridgway_at_durham.ac.uk
• University of Durham
• www.dur.ac.uk/smart.centre/

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Levels of Statistical Literacy
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Computer Based
Paper Based
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Oxygen
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From AQA
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From AQA
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ALL National Exams (2004) Technique as of
Exam
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Average Score/Maximum Score
Paper Based
Computer Based