Students ’ Understanding of the Significance Level Concept

Throughout introductory tertiary statistics subjects, students are introduced to a multitude of new terms for statistical concepts and procedures. One such term, significance level, has been considered in the statistical literature. Three themes of discussion relate to this concept the problem of interpretation (and misinterpretation), the selection of an appropriate level, and the evaluation of results based on significance level. However, empirical research regarding this concept is very limited. This paper reports on a qualitative study which used concept maps and standard hypothesis tests to investigate students’ conceptual and procedural knowledge of the significance level concept. Eighteen students completing an introductory tertiary statistics subject were interviewed after their final exam in statistics. Results showed that many students did not have a good understanding of the concept.