Whats happening in the world of statistics education

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Whats happening in the world of statistics
education?

• Assessing Student Learning in Statistics
• 19-21 August 2007, Guimarães, Portugal

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Main Themes

• Statistical Literacy
• Alternative methods of assessing statistics
• The problem solving approach
• with a focus on assessment

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Starter Question

• What percentage of course time should assessment
  take up?
• (Spain and Portugal spend 2 months!!)

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Focus of the Conference

• Assessment
• Any assessment implies a theory of student
  learning
• We assess what we deem to be important

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Intention of teaching statistics

• Aim to produce statistically literate, computer
  literate citizens with maybe some statistics
  zealots
• Good research has
• Clearly defined question
• Identification of variables
• Clearly defined conclusions
• Real life does not follow textbooks
• Communicate with other departments to gain
  student interest in other areas and reserch in
  that area

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Learning and Assessment in Statistics

• Teaching is all about making student learning
  possible
• Assessment must support student learning
• Any assessment implies a view of student
  learning behaviourist v constructivist
• We need formative and summative assessment

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Complexity of statistics

• Knowledge
• Literacy skills
• Statistical knowledge
• Mathematical skills
• Contextual knowledge
• Critical questioning

• Disposition
• Critical ability
• Beliefs and attitudes

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Problem Solving Approach (PSA)

• View everyday events from a statistical
  perspective
• Use cross-curricular opportunities to establish
  relevance for students
• Make decision making evidence-based rather than
  on gut feeling
• Use thinking skills to develop arguments

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• Use statistics naturally within the context other
  subjects offer
• Exploit the ways in which other learning areas
  use statistics eg social science
• These teachers may be more comfortable with the
  group work and discussion required in learning
  statistics.
• Grab back a bit of teaching time in this way!

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It is important to remember that

• What you assess is what you get!
• If you dont test it you wont get it (Resnick)
• Assessment determines what students learn AND how
  they go about learning it.
• Assessment must support learning

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• Patrick Murphy
• University of Dublin
• Irelands largest Uni

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Aims

• To improve student participation and learning
• To implement MANAGEABLE continuous assessment

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Assessment programme

• In class
• participation 10
• tests 10
• Assignment
• Homework 15
• Project 15
• Examination 50

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In class

• Participation
• Every student given a number each time they
  contributed to discussion or asked a question
  they held up an A4 sheet with their number on it,
  and noted by teacher

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Homework

• Students were given 10 assignments, only two were
  marked (students did not know which two)
• Tutorials provided

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Results

• Significant improvement in grades, attendance at
  lectures and participation in lectures.
• It was not popular with students and the effect
  on enrolments is still to be seen.

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• Larry Wheldon
• Simon Fraser University
• Vancouver
• Canada

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• Aimed to improve participation and understanding
  amongst third year students. Also wanted to
  assess for conceptual understanding.
• Assessment consisted of
• Completing a project, having first handed in a
  draft
• Presenting a seven minute seminar on it
• Thus oral and written verbalization of concepts
  was required

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Assessment

• Students were marked on their response to the
  critique by their teacher
• The clarity of content and communication were
  assessed, as precision encourages clear thinking
• Discussion had to be not only in context but
  expressed well,
• Proved to be popular with students as valuable
  for career preparation

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Assessment

• Assignments 30
• Tutorials 5
• Term test 15
• Final Exam 50
• During the course and in the assessment tasks are
  required to evaluate media articles, journal
  articles and technical reports based on opinion
  polls, sample surveys, experiments and
  observational studies.
• Weekly tutorials are used to assess attendance
  and participation.

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Some suggestions

• Improving participation and continual learning
• Problem solving approach
• ISLP who wants to be a millionaire
• Hypothetical thinking exercises
• Auckland Unis answer
• Using letter writing to assess
• Using census at school

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Statistical Literacy

• Raising statistical literacy is a worldwide
  phenomenon
• There is as yet no worldwide acceptance of what
  statistical literacy is
• There are two possible definitions
• - the sequential approach
• - the longitudinal approach

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The sequential model

• Literacy, reasoning and thinking are seen as
  sequential, happening one after the other

Literacy
Reasoning
Thinking
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The longitudinal model

• Views statistical literacy as the understanding
  of the whole statistical process, with the three
  elements of literacy, reasoning and thinking
  being understood simultaneously.

Informal LRT
Formal LRT
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Programme for the International Assessment of
Adult Competencies (PIAAC)

• It addresses critical statistical skills needed
  by adults as part of general everyday or
  workplace functioning.
• It is somewhat similar in general terms to the
  PISA assessment program of high school students
  which is now implemented in dozens of countries.
• One of the several domains of PIAAC will be
  numeracy, and one of the strands in it will be
  knowledge of statistics (data and chance).
• A talk by Iddo Gal at the IASE Satellite
  Conference in Guimaraes, August 19-21 2007 gave
  information on this project and the potential
  contribution to it of statistics educators.

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International Statistical Literacy Project (ISLP)

• User friendly website that is section of the
  International Association for Statistical
  Education (IASE) network
• http//www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/iase/islp/
• Aims to support, create and participate in
  statistical literacy activities and promotion
  around the world.
• Has resources for parents and teachers

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Some useful sites

• Compare statistics of different countries
• http//www.nationmaster.com/index.php
• Quiz assessing how good students are at finding
  information from tables
• http//www.statcan.ca/english/edu/index.htm
• Intro to common terminology in statistics
• http//www.stats.org/
• Puzzles and games
• http//www.censusatschool.ntu.ac.uk/quizpuzzle.asp
  

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Question

• Who knows more stats?
• Someone who can describe what standard deviation
  is (the mathematical description)
• OR
• Someone who can say We usually make 100 per
  day, sometimes we do well, sometimes not so well.

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Main thrust of PIAAC

• identify and measure differences between
  individuals and countries in competencies
  believed to underlie both personal and societal
  success
• assess the impact of these competencies on social
  and economic outcomes at individual and aggregate
  levels
• gauge the performance of education and training
  systems in generating required competencies and
• help to clarify the policy levers that could
  contribute to enhancing competencies.

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ARTIST website

• Assessment Resource Tools to Improve Statistical
  Literacy
• https//app.gen.umn.edu/artist/
• Goal is to help teachers assess statistical
  literacy, statistical reasoning, and statistical
  thinking in first courses of statistics. 
• Definitions of Statistical Literacy, Reasoning,
  and Thinking
• Examples of Assessment Items coded as Statistical
  Literacy, Reasoning, and Thinking
• How Statistical Literacy, Reasoning, and Thinking
  are related
• How Statistical Literacy, Reasoning, and Thinking
  relate to Blooms and other taxonomies
• Words that characterize assessment items for
  Statistical Literacy, Reasoning, and Thinking

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Inspiration closer to home

• Auckland University
• Stage 1 course
• Lies, Damned lies and Statistics

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Aims

• The course aims to make students critical
  consumers of statistical information
• To instill in students the ability to think
  statistically
• To enable students to critically evaluate
  statistically-based reports
• To teach students to construct statistically
  sound reports

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Based on this definition of statistical literacy
by Watson

• Basic understanding of probabilistic and
  statistical terminology
• Understanding of statistical language and
  concepts embedded in wider social discussion
• Challenging claims in the media (1997) and
• Knowledge of how data are produced (2006)

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• Students and teachers use up to date articles
  from the media, often available directly on
  website eg Herald, comparing with original
  report.
• Uses discussion in groups to share and extend
  ideas, mirroring the way statisticians work
  together
• Linda Merriman

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