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College of Education & Human Development Educational Psychology

Educational Psychology
250 Education Sciences Building - 56 East River Road - Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA
Tel: 612-624-1698 - Fax: 612-624-8241
photo of Joan Garfield

Joan B. Garfield

Quantitative methods in education

Ph.D., University of Minnesota

Office: 178 Education Sciences Building
Tel: 612-625-0337
E-mail: jbg@umn.edu

Please check out the projects and activities of our CATALST group:

CATALST—Change Agents for Teaching and Learning Statistics

I have combined my teaching and research interests into one focus: exploring how to improve student learning of statistics. I've attempted to connect and build on relevant research from the areas of psychology, learning and cognition, statistics, and mathematics education. I continually experiment with alternative methods of teaching statistics and assessing student learning and often write about what I've learned in journals or books on statistics education. I am pleased to offer a new area of concentration in statistics education (which began fall 2002), that includes coursework on teaching statistics as well as on current and classic research on teaching and learning statistics. I am a co-founder and co-chair of the International Research Forums on Statistical Reasoning, Thinking and Literacy, and co-edited a book with Dr. Dani Ben-Zvi (University of Haifa, Israel) on this topic. My other research collaborators include Dr. Robert delMas and Dr. Andrew Zieffler at the University of Minnesota and Dr. Beth Chance at California Polytechnic State University. We are currently involved in three NSF-funded projects, all aimed at improving the introductory college statistics course.

Job Posting

The Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor in Quantitative Methods in Education with an emphasis in measurement and psychometrics, particularly focusing on measurement models and item response theory.  For the full job description and to apply online, go to the UM Employment Page  Review of applications will begin December 1, 2009.

 

I co-chaired the GAISE Project (Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education), funded by the American Statistical Association (ASA). To view the new ASA approved guidelines, see www.amstat.org/education/gaise/. I serve as associate director for research for CAUSE (Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education). See the Research pages on causeweb.org.  I co-chaired a recent ASA-funded workshop on Developing and Supporting Graduate Programs in Statistics Education.

Awards and honors include: Fellow, American Educational Research Association (2009), USCOTS 2007 Lifetime Achievement Award; University of Minnesota Graduate-Professional Teaching Award for outstanding contributions to post baccalaureate, graduate, and professional education (2006); American Statistical Association Founders Award (2005); Fellow, American Statistical Association (2001); U of M Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Award (1995); U of M Technology Enhanced Learning Award (1998); and College of Education and Human Development Distinguished Teaching Award (2002). I am an elected member of the International Statistical Institute and am Associate Editor of the Statistics Educational Research Journal (SERJ) and Technology Innovations in Statistical Education (TISE).

Are you interested in finding a graduate program in statistics education?
Please check out the following:

Courses in statistical education

Degrees in educational psychology—statistics education concentration within the quantitative methods in education track

Selected publications

Garfield, J., & Ben-Zvi, D. (2008).  Developing Students’ Statistical Reasoning Research and Teaching Practice.  Springer Publishers. .

Zieffler, A., & Garfield, J. (in press).  Modeling the growth of students covariational reasoning during an introductory statistics course.  Statistics Education Research Journal.

Garfield, J & Ben-Zvi, D. (in press).  Helping students develop statistical reasoning:  Implementing a statistical reasoning learning environment.  Teaching Statistics.

Garfield, J. & delMas, R. (in press).  A website that provides resources for assessing students’ statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking.  Teaching Statistics.

Zieffler, A., Garfield, J., delMas, R., and Reading, C. (2008).  A framework to support research on informal inferential reasoning.  Statistics Education Research Journal, 7(2), 40-58.

Everson, M.G., & Garfield, J. (2008).  An innovative approach to teaching online statistics courses.  Technology Innovations in Statistics Education, 2(1).  http://repositories.cdlib.org/uclastat/cts/tise/vol2/iss1/art2/

Ben-Zvi, D., & Garfield, J. (2008).  Introducing the emerging discipline of statistics education.  School Science and Mathematics, 108, 355-361.

Ooms, A., & Garfield, J.  (2008). A model to evaluate online educational resources in statistics.  Technology Innovations in Statistics Education Journal 2(1).  http://repositories.cdlib/org/uclastat/cts/tise/vol2/iss1/art2/

Zieffler, A., Garfield, J., Alt, S., Dupuis, D., Holleque, K., & Chang, B.  (2008)  What does research suggest about the teaching and learning of introductory statistics at the college level?  A review of literature.  Journal of Statistics Education, 16(2).  http://www/amstat.org/publications/jse/v16n2/zieffler.html

Roseth, C.J., Garfield, J.B., & Ben-Zvi, D. (2008).  Collaboration in learning and teaching statistics.  Journal of Statistics Education 16(1).  http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v16n1/roseth.html

Everson, M., Zieffler, A., & Garfield, J. (2008).  Implementing new reform guidelines in teaching introductory college statistics courses.  Teaching Statistics, 30(3), 66-70.

Garfield, J., & Ben-Zvi, D.  (2007). How students learn statistics revisited:  A current review of research on teaching and learning statistics.  International Statistical Review, 75(3) 372-396.

delMas, R., Garfield, J., Ooms, A., & Chance, B. (2007).  Assessing students’ conceptual understanding after a first course in statistics.  Statistics Education Research Journal, 6(2), 28-58.  http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/serj/SERJ6(2)_delMas.pdf

Chance, B., Ben-Zvi, D., Garfield, J., & Medina, E.  (2007, October).  The role of technology in improving student learning of statistics.  Technology Innovations in Statistics Education Journal, 1(1).  http://repositories.cdlib.org/uclastat/cts/tise/vol1/iss1/art2/

Garfield, J., & Ben-Zvi, D.  (2005).  A framework for teaching and assessing reasoning about variability.  Statistics Education Research Journal, 4(1), 92-99.

Books published

Funded projects

Professional memberships

A personal statement about teaching

Revised May 2009

 
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The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
Last modified on November 12, 2009