Over the past 40 years or more there have been many attempts to improve the curriculum in school statistics. They have had varying degrees of success. Referring mainly to experience in the UK, but also noting developments in the USA, I shall try to identify the lessons to be learned if such curriculum development is to be successful.
Historically, little or no statistics has been taught at schools in South Africa. This is about to change dramatically with the introduction of a new curriculum. The dilemma however, is that statistics will have to be taught by teachers who have had little or no training in statistics! The authors propose a plan, aimed at the foundation phase, to assist teachers to cope with the challenges of teaching statistics successfully. They emphasize that it is of cardinal importance that statistical training is developed according to the age of the learners, bearing in mind the mathematical tools that they have at their disposal at that time.
This paper describes the main results of a research project carried out in Italy at every school level to compare how different teaching approaches influence the students' learning process. The experiment involved more than 6000 pupils (age 6-19) at every school level and 338 teachers.
The sociocultural perspective draws attention to students' development of a sense of who they are in relation to statistics as an integral aspect of their learning. This focus on students' construction of identities as doers of statistics relates directly to a number of issues that are of immediate concern to most teachers including students' interest in and motivations for studying statistics. We present the results of a classroom design experiment in which a group of 12-year-old students developed identities as people who chose to engage in, saw value in, and viewed themselves as competent at developing data-based arguments. We also discuss aspects of the design experiment that appeared to play an important role in supporting the students' development of these positive orientations towards statistics.
We report the findings of a detailed study of the ways in which a group of paediatric nurses think about the notion of average and variation. We describe some continuities and discontinuities between mathematical and nursing epistemologies, and draw some general conclusions about the ways in which more general mathematical meanings are constructed and 'transferred' that takes account of both cognitive and sociocultural perspectives.
The role of Statistics is becoming increasingly important in today's society. According to several authors, collaborative work has shown to be one of the most adapted forms of facilitating knowledge appropriation and the mobilisation of competencies. The project Interaction and Knowledge has studied and encouraged peer interactions in the Mathematics class, in association with a new didactic or experimental contract, as a way of promoting pupils' performances, allowing them to reach relational knowledge. By analysing excerpts of these interactions we can understand the facilitating character of this working method.
We explore the effects of optional community-based projects on students and particularly on motivation and learning in an applied statistics course. We consider how the nature and structure of community-based projects enhance student learning in a constructivist classroom. We critically assess the intellectual challenges of a community-based project and the nature of the statistical problems that arise. We review students' evaluations and our own estimation of their ability to learn from experience and from the community.
A travel lab component in elementary statistics is envisioned as a statistics lab within the context of a foreign setting. This paper will focus on why this is important and how the learning of statistics can be enhanced due to participation in such a lab. The travel lab component to Nicaragua in 2000 dealt with the extreme poverty among women and children. In Cuba in 2002, it will be on the status of women in contemporary Cuba. Many students appear to have an interest in humanitarian issues and even expect to see values discussed in their college courses. Thus they find this application of statistics in social context not only interesting but also relevant. I believe that through this type of travel component the utility of statistics becomes evident and students are better able to appreciate statistics studied and used in context.
In this paper we will present ways in which we have improved our introductory statistics courses by making connections with our community. We focus on three primary approaches: course structure, course content, and bringing in outside contacts and experiences. Changes to course structure include things like course projects and assignments that form an explicit part of the course workload for students. Our discussion of course content will consist of examples we use to illustrate learning objectives through a community connection. We then discuss how we incorporate consulting and other outside contacts to improve our courses. We also discuss student feedback and reactions.
At Sonoma State University, we offer a 2-hour per week class in Statistical Consulting. All our statistics majors must take the class twice, and other students may also take the class. The only prerequisite for the class is a semester of Elementary Statistics. This leads to a very varied class, in terms of statistical ability and experience. Our clients at the Statistical Consulting Center are largely from two sources, namely other departments at the university, and local non-profit organizations. Both these sources typically have projects that are suitable for our consulting class, so that both unsophisticated and advanced students can benefit from it. I will present some examples of these projects, and discuss the perhaps surprisingly high levels of satisfaction of the students, in terms of their learning objectives, and of the clients, in terms of their needs. Faculty also enjoy teaching the class, and the university gets much positive publicity in the community.