Abstract
Together with other partner universities, the University of Hamburg is implementing an e-learning programme to be used in methodology and statistics education. This programme, the Methodenlehre-Baukasten (MLBK), follows a didactic concept based on Jean Piaget's cognitive constructivist learning theory and Jerome Bruner's concept of discovery learning. We assume that this didactic model is particularly well suited for the target group of the MLBK, students of the social sciences in the first semesters with fears and disinterest in statistics (statistics anxiety, see below). The MLBK is used at the four participating universities of Hamburg, Bremen, Rostock and Greifswald in the undergraduate degree programmes in psychology, education and sociology. In the course of the evaluation, the first step is to identify those students from the sample of all participating students who make up our target group. This is done with the help of a questionnaire that measures statistical anxiety. As a further characteristic for determining the target group, the people studied are grouped in advance according to their cognitive learning styles. The evaluation of the MLBK systematically examines which learning opportunities the target group receives through the learning system. Therefore, the added value of MLBK is not determined globally and context-free, but in relation to the needs of the intended target groups.
