New Pedagogy and New Content: The Case of Statistics (original) (raw)

Introducing the emerging discipline of statistics education

Increasing attention has been given over the last decade by the statistics, mathematics and science education communities to the development of statistical literacy and numeracy skills of all citizens and the enhancement of statistics education at all levels. This paper introduces the emerging discipline of statistics education and considers its role in the development of these important skills. The paper begins with information on the growing importance of statistics in today's society, schools and colleges, summarizes unique challenges students face as they learn statistics, and makes a case for the importance of collaboration between mathematicians and statisticians in preparing teachers to teach students how to understand and reason about data. We discuss the differences and interrelations between statistics and mathematics, recognizing that mathematics is the discipline that has traditionally included instruction in statistics. We conclude with an argument that statistics should be viewed as a bridge between mathematics and science and should be taught in both disciplines.

Approaches to Broadening the Statistics Curricula

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion about what a statistics curriculum should contain, and which elements are important for different types of students. For the most part, attention has been understandably focused on the introductory statistics course. This course services thousands of students who take only one statistics course. In the United States, the course typically fulfills a general education requirement of the university or a degree program. There has also been considerable activity regarding the use of computers to present statistical concepts and to leverage the Web and course management software to interact with students. Recently, there has been debate as to whether statisticians should make ambitious changes using resampling, the bootstrap, and simulation in place of the more traditional mathematical topics that are seen as the fundamentals or origins of the field (Cobb, 2007). It is unclear that we are achieving the goals of basic statistical literacy by focusing on formulae or even by concentrating almost exclusively on methodology. Instead, we believe the field and students would be significantly better served by showing the challenges and applicability of statistics to everyday life, policy, and scientific decision making in many contexts, and by teaching students how to think statistically and creatively. In contrast to the activity at the introductory level, there has been much less attention paid to updating the statistics curricula for other categories of students. While smaller in number, these students—undergraduate majors and minors, masters, and doctoral students—are very important, as they are the ones who will use statistics to further the field and improve the quality of research. Other disciplines (e.g., biology, geo graphy, and political and social sciences) are increasingly appreciating the importance of statistics and including statistical material in their curricula. Further, statistics has become a broader subject and field. However, the statistics curricula at these levelshave not changed much past the introductory courses. Students taking courses for just 2 years may not see any modern statistical methods, leading them to a view that the important statistical ideas have all been developed. More importantly, few students will see how these methods are really used, and even fewer will know at the end of their studies what a statistician actually does. This is because statisticians very rarely attempt to teach this; instead, they labor over the details of various methodologies. The statistics curricula are based on presenting an intellectual infrastructure in order to understand the statistical method. This has significant consequences for improved quantitative literacy. As the practice of science and statistics research continues to change, its perspective and attitudes must also change so as to realize the field's potential and maximize the important influence that statistical thinking has on scientific endeavors. To a large extent, this means learning from the past and challenging the status quo. Instead of teaching the same concepts with varying degrees of mathematical rigor, statisticians need to address what is missing from the curricula. In our work, we look at what statistics students might do and howstatistics programs could change to allow graduates to attain their potential.

The Discipline of Statistics Education

2008

The Growing Importance of Statistics No one will debate the fact that quantitative information is everywhere and numerical data are increasingly presented with the intention of adding credibility to advertisements, arguments, or advice. Most would also agree that being able to properly evaluate such evidence and data-based claims are important skills that all citizens should have, and therefore, that all students should learn as part of their education. It is not surprising therefore that statistics instruction at all educational levels is gaining more students and drawing more attention. The study of statistics provides students with tools and ideas to use in order to react intelligently to quantitative information in the world around them. Reflecting this need to improve students' ability to think statistically, statistics and statistical reasoning are becoming part of the mainstream school curriculum in many countries. For example, more statistical content is being mandated in the K-12 mathematics curriculum (Australian Education Council, 1994; Curriculum Corporation, 2006; Department for Education and Employment, 1999; Ministry of Education, 1992; National Council of Teachers for Mathematics, 2000). Additionally, as more and more departments realize the importance of statistical thinking in their own disciplines, enrollments in statistics courses at the college level continue to grow (Scheaffer & Stasney, 2004). Moore (1998) suggested that statistics should be viewed as one of the liberal arts because statistics involves distinctive and powerful ways of thinking: "Statistics is a general intellectual method that applies wherever data, variation, and chance appear. It is a fundamental method because data, variation, and chance are omnipresent in modern life" (p. 134).

A CRITICAL UNDERSTANDING AND TRANSFORMATION OF AN INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS COURSE

In this paper, we report on the impact of four activities and two interviews on the organization of an introductory statistics course attended by future mathematics teachers at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The activities were designed to enhance students' learning and collaborative knowledge construction, based on Vygotsky's Socio-Historical Theory. Data were collected in the course through the activities and the interviews. Analysis of the data suggests that the course improved students' initiative, collaboration and intentional action, as well as their attitude as future mathematics teachers. Quantitative results comparing 2013 with earlier offerings of the course are also discussed. The transformation discussed here could be applied in other introductory statistics courses, and may lead to practical pedagogical improvements.

The Course as Textbook: A Symbiotic Relationship in the Introductory Statistics Class

Technology Innovations in Statistics Education, 2013

In the past several decades, the statistics textbook has evolved to include a variety of ancillary materials intended to supplement students’ learning and assist the teacher (e.g., workbooks, study guides, audio program, test banks, PowerPoint slides, links to applets and websites, etc.). Given the capabilities of modern technology and the need for change in content and pedagogy in the introductory statistics course, a new vision of a textbook is offered, one that exploits new technology, provides modern content, and is a more integral part of the course. Rather than serving as a supplement to a course, the modern textbook needs to embody the course. An example of such a text in the context of a unique, new introductory statistics course is provided.

Teaching Bits: Statistics Education Articles from 2009

2010

The Internet offers a huge array of teaching resources for statistics. Here we present a selection of engaging Web-based tools, ranging from class surveys to individual simulation experiments. Abstract: The surprising property of many data sets that their first significant digits follow Benford's Law provides examples that can pique and hold students' interest. Several ideas for student activities are presented. Abstract: Computational formulae are a throwback to a time when computers were not widely available. Today their teaching obscures important underpinnings of statistical theory and practice. Journal of Statistics Education, v17n2: Abstract: The use of the Internet as a teaching tool continues to grow in popularity at colleges and universities. We consider, from the students' perspective, the use of an Internet approach compared to a lecture and lab-based approach for teaching an introductory course in statistical methods. We conducted a survey of introductory statistics students. Contradictory to what was hypothesized by the authors, they favored keeping the lecture and lab-based approach for teaching the class. Abstract: This study examined students' development of reasoning about quantitative bivariate data during a onesemester university-level introductory statistics course. There were three research questions of interest: (1) What is the nature, or pattern of change in students' development in reasoning throughout the course?;

and Learning of Introductory Statistics at the College Level? A Review of the Literature

2009

and Beng Chang all rights reserved. This text may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the authors and advance notification of the editor. Key Words: Statistics Education Research; Teaching and learning; College students. Since the first studies on the teaching and learning of statistics appeared in the research literature, the scholarship in this area has grown dramatically. Given the diversity of disciplines, methodology, and orientation of the studies that may be classified as "statistics education research, " summarizing and critiquing this body of work for teachers of statistics is a challenging and important endeavor. In this paper, a representative subset of studies related to the teaching and learning of statistics in introductory, non-calculus based college courses is reviewed. As a result of this review, and in an effort to improve the teaching and learning of statistics at the introd...

Teaching and Learning of Statistics

The Proceedings of the 12th International Congress on Mathematical Education, 2015

Being able to provide sound evidence-based arguments and critically evaluate data-based claims are important skills that all citizens should have. It is not surprising therefore that the study of statistics at all educational levels is gaining more students and drawing more attention than it has in the past. The study of statistics provides students with tools, ideas and dispositions to use in order to react intelligently to information in the world around them. Reflecting this need to improve students' ability to think statistically, statistical literacy and reasoning are becoming part of the mainstream school and university curriculum in many countries. As a consequence, statistics education is a growing and becoming an exciting field of research and development. Statistics at school level is usually taught in the mathematics classroom in connection with learning probability. Topic Study Group 12 (TSG-12) included probabilistic aspects in learning statistics, whereas research with a specific focus on learning probability was discussed in TSG-11 of ICME-12.