Proceedings

  • The usefulness of stochastic models and statistical inferences in a wide range of disciplines has gradually led to the inclusion of probability and statistics courses in many academic curricula. Unfortunately, the required course in statistics is often the most disliked and feared course in a student's curriculum. This is especially the case for "nontechnical" students who generally have limited mathematical capabilities. Instructors of statistics courses for such students often feel they must devote a significant proportion of their instruction to improving the students' algebraic and computational skills. In what follows, I shall report on a program we have been using for Management Science students at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. In this program, Texas Instruments T159 calculators are issued to all students entering the Management Science (MS) curriculum, and these personal calculators are used by the students throughout their six quarter program leading to a Master's degree in Management Science.

  • Today, I would like to present four simulations of games from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, realized on the screen of a micro-computer which will eventually provide numerical results.

  • On the whole, case studies (and exemplary project studies) can permit the perception that not only knowledge of statistics (in the mathematical-technical sense) but especially expert knowledge in the field of application, of the problem at hand, and some "meta"-knowledge about possibilities and limitations of statistical methods in question will and should play a decisive role to compete in situations with uncertainty. The intuitive way to teach statistics should be by means of case studies. Case studies should have the same place in teaching statistics as simulation has in elementary probability.

  • Students often perceive statistics as an overabundance of seemingly unconnected methods and problems. This problem could be eliminated if statistics were presented as a scientific investigation of a single comprehensive real-life case study, which we conditionally call a "scientific legend".

  • The problems that the teaching of Statistics generates are diverse and complex. They emerge either from the "formal" teaching (primary, secondary, and university), which is offered under the responsibility of the "academic statisticians", or from the training of governmental statisticians, who have responsibility for operation and supervision of technical and professional activities. The present situation of teaching statistics in Latin America is described.

  • It is now widely recognized, if still grudgingly by some academicians and persons in older professions, that statistics is both an academic discipline and a profession. In Africa as indeed in every other continent of the world, the teaching of statistics may be conveniently put into two broad categories: the teaching of statistics as an academic discipline in schools and colleges and the training in statistics as a profession. It would therefore be convenient to treat the topic of this paper in two parts, namely: statistical education corresponding to teaching statistics as an academic discipline in institutions and statistical training for a profession.

  • The main aim of this paper is to assess the present position regarding the extent of the availability of statistical education and training facilities in the developing countries of the ESCAP region and to discuss some of the main problems being faced by these countries in developing the statistical manpower needed in the context of the development efforts. Early developments in the fields of statistical education and statistical training are briefly covered in the section 'Early Developments' and university education in statistics, regional and national training facilities are taken up in the sections 'University Education in Statistics', 'Regional Training Centers' and 'National Training Centers'; teaching of statistics in schools is briefly discussed in the section 'Concluding Remarks'. No attempt is made in this paper to review or evaluate the design and contents of the courses offered by the universities, institutes and training centers in the region.

  • In the following discussion several issues are presented for interdisciplinary reflection on the teaching of Probability and Statistics in preparatory school. they are set out according to a scheme which links this particular subject, with, in the first place, other disciplines - mathematics, physical-natural sciences, humanities and social sciences; secondly, with the variables of individual learning and modes of scholastic organization; and finally, with environmental variables (see scheme 1). The scheme is organized around problems and disciplines involved in the didactic complex and incorporates many features of the learning-teaching process. Some of the issues originate in the Italian reality; they may also be valid in other national contexts.

  • Teach-Stat is a professional development program for elementary teachers (grades K-6) in North Carolina funded by the National Science Foundation and jointly sponsored by the University of N.C. Mathematics and Science Education Network, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction and the N.C. Science and Mathematics Alliance. The Teach-Stat faculty are developing materials to help teachers expand their knowledge and understanding of statistics and to help them teach it to elementary students through an activity-based, data investigations approach. We expect teachers who participate in the Teach-Stat program will reframe the way they teach mathematics, science and social studies through the integration of data analysis activities into these subject areas. This paper provides an overview of Teach-Stat, a brief description of some of the workshop materials that have been developed for it, and a preliminary report on several research results that are beginning to emerge from the project.

  • STAT-MAPS, "Statistics-Materials and Activities for Problem Solving", is a four year project (1991-94) in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, Appalachian State University, USA. Funded by the National Science Foundation, the STAT-MAPS project is developing curriculum and materials for students in grades 9-12 (ages 15-17). The STAT-MAPS curriculum is giving attention to students with a broad range of abilities and interests, not just the college bound ones or the advanced students who have a special interest in science or mathematics. The goals of STAT-MAPS are to: (1) describe a flexible curriculum for various secondary level settings, (2) develop effective instructional strategies for presenting this curriculum, and (3) provide materials for implementing the instructional strategies and curriculum. The project is based on the recommendations of The Curriculum Standards of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1989) and builds on the previous work of the Quantitative Literacy Project (Scheaffer, 1986).

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