College of Education and Human Development

Department of Educational Psychology

Robert delMas

  • Professor Emeritus; quantitative methods in education; CEHD Distinguished Teaching Award

Robert delMas

Areas of interest

  • Statistics education research
  • Activity-based instruction
  • Curriculum development
  • Assessment development
  • Mixed-methods research methods
Degrees

CEHD Distinguished Teaching Award
PhD, University of Minnesota, 1988

Biography

Dr. Robert (Bob) delMas retired in May 2022 after over 30 years of significant contributions to the field of statistics education; the University of Minnesota; and countless students of statistics (some he will never meet). Upon his retirement, the Journal of Statistics and Data Science Education (JSDSE) honored his contributions to the field of statistics education in an article, "An Interview with Bob delMas."

An alumni of the University of Minnesota, Dr. delMas earned his bachelor's degree in child development (now developmental psychology) from the Institute of Child Development in 1979 and his PhD in educational psychology from the Department of Educational Psychology in 1988.

Dr. delMas began working at the University of Minnesota in 1987 as a Graduate Research Fellow in the General College's Office of Research and Evaluation. Upon completing his doctoral degree in 1988, he worked for two years as an assistant professor in the Social Science Division at Truman State University (formerly, Northeast Missouri State University). In 1992, Dr. delMas returned to the University of Minnesota as Director of Research and Evaluation in the General College. He became an assistant professor of mathematics and statistics in the General College in 1998 and was promoted to associate professor in 2004. In 2006, Dr. delMas joined the Department of Educational Psychology as an associate professor in the quantitative methods in education focused on statistics education.

In 2016, Dr. delMas earned a Distinguished Teaching Award from the College of Education and Human Development for his outstanding contributions to learning through classroom and/or field-based teaching, student advising, and academic innovations.

Dr. delMas' other interests include playing guitar and harmonica, woodworking and home improvement projects, spending time with my family, spending time in the outdoors (especially canoeing), and practicing a traditional style of Japanese karate.

Publications

Jung, P. G., McMasters, K. & delMas, R. (2016). Effects of data-based instruction for students with intensive early writing needs. Exceptional Children. DOI: 10.1177/0014402916667586

Nam, K. A., Weaver, G., & delMas, R. (2015). Major ethical issues in the field of intercultural relations: An exploratory study. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 48, 58–74. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2015.03.015

delMas, R., Garfield, J. & Zieffler, A. (2014). Using TinkerPlots™ to develop tertiary students' statistical thinking in a modeling-based introductory statistics class. In T. Wassong,  D. Frischemeier, P. R. Fischer, R. Hochmuth and P. Bender (Eds.), Mit Werkzeugen, Mathematik und Stochastik lernen - Using tools for Learning Mathematics and Statistics (pp. 405-420). Wiesbaden, Germany: Springer Spektrum.

Garfield, J., delMas, R. & Zieffler, A. (2012). Developing statistical modelers and thinkers in an introductory, tertiary-level statistics course. ZDM: The International Journal on Mathematics Education, 44 (7), 883-898. doi: 10.1007/s11858-012-0447-5.

Zieffler, A., Park, J., Garfield, J., delMas, R., Bjornsdottier, A. (2012). The Statistics Teaching Inventory: A Survey on Statistics Teachers’ Classroom Practices and Beliefs. Journal of Statistics Education, 20(1).

Zieffler, A., Garfield, J., delMas, R. C.,  Le, L., Isaak, R., Bjornsdottir, A. & Park, J., (2011). Publishing in SERJ: An analysis of papers from 2002-2009. Statistics Education Research Journal, 10(2). http://iase-web.org/documents/SERJ/SERJ10(2)_Zieffler.pdf

Hjalmarson, M. A., Moore, T. J. & delMas, R. (2011). Statistical analysis when the data is an image: Eliciting student thinking about sampling and variability. Statistics Education Research Journal, 10(1), 15-34. http://iase-web.org/documents/SERJ/SERJ10(1)_Hjalmarson.pdf

Presentations

delMas, R. (August, 2016). Evaluating the Statistical Thinking of Students Enrolled in a Randomization-Based Curriculum. Paper presented at the Joint Statistical Meetings, Chicago, IL.

Garfield, J., Fry, E., Zieffler, A. & delMas, R. (May, 2015). e-ATLAS: Evaluation and Assessment of Teaching and Learning About Statistics. Poster presented at the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS), State College, PA.

Jacobbe, T., Whitaker, D., delMas, R., Case, C., Haberstroh, J., Foti, S. & Hartlaub, B. (May, 2015). Establishing the Validity and Reliability of Assessments of Statistical Understanding. Poster presented at the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics (USCOTS), State College, PA.

Garfield, J., delMas, R., Zieffler, A., Fry, E. B., Pearl, D. (January, 2015). Evaluation and Assessment of Teaching and Learning About Statistics (e-ATLAS). Poster presented at the Joint Mathematics Meeting (JMM), San Antonio, TX.

delMas, R. (July, 2014). Trends in students’ conceptual understanding of statistics. In K. Makar, B. de Sousa, & R. Gould (Eds.), Sustainability in statistics education. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS9, July, 2014), Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute.

http://iase-web.org/icots/9/proceedings/pdfs/ICOTS9_3C1_DELMAS.pdf

Zieffler, A., delMas, R. C., Garfield, J. & Brown, E. (July, 2014). The symbiotic, mutualistic relationship between modeling and simulation in developing students’ statistical reasoning about inference and uncertainty. In K. Makar, B. de Sousa, & R. Gould (Eds.), Sustainability in statistics education. Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS9, July, 2014), Flagstaff, Arizona, USA. Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute.

http://iase-web.org/icots/9/proceedings/pdfs/ICOTS9_8B1_ZIEFFLER.pdf

Jacobbe, T., Haberstroh, J., delMas, R., Hartlaub, B., Whitaker, D., Case, C. & Foti, S. (April, 2014). Establishing the content validity of LOCUS through evidence centered design. Paper presented at the Annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Philadelphia, PA.

Jacobbe, T., delMas, R., Haberstroh, J., Hartlaub, B., Whitaker, D., Case, C. & Foti, S. (April, 2014). LOCUS: A measure of students’ understanding of statistics. Poster presented at the Annual conference of the American Educational Research Association (AERA), Philadelphia, PA.

delMas, R., Fry, E., Le, L. & Sabbag, A. (May, 2013). Evaluating the Impact of Change in Curriculum and Teaching. Breakout session talk presented at the United States Conference on Teaching Statistics, Raleigh-Durham, NC.

Garfield, J., delMas, R. & Zieffler, A. (January, 2013). Collaborative Research: The CATALSTS Project, Change Agents for Teaching and Learning Statistics. Refereed poster presented at the Transforming Undergraduate Education in STEM: Building a Community to Transform Undergraduate STEM Education conference sponsored by the TUES division of the National Science Foundation, Washington, DC.

Fry, E., Garfield, J., delMas, R., & Zieffler, A. (2013). e-ATLAS: Evaluation and assessment of teaching and learning about statistics. Invited poster presented at the Joint Mathematics Meetings (JMM), San Diego, CA.