The nonparametric approach to elementary statistics advocated in this paper presents statistical ideas simply and straightforwardly without overwhelming the student with mathematical derivations.
The nonparametric approach to elementary statistics advocated in this paper presents statistical ideas simply and straightforwardly without overwhelming the student with mathematical derivations.
This paper discusses the importance of including probability in the teaching of statistics.
Children (preschoolers and third-, and sixth-grade pupils) were asked to choose out of 2 sets of marbles of 2 colors the set which they believed offered more chances of drawing a marble of a given color. It was found that a short instruction enabled the third-grade Ss to make their correct decisions, as did the sixth-graders, through a comparison of quantitative ratios. Reprinted from Child Development 41 (1970), 377 - 389.
Interest in children's concepts of chance and probability has been prompted by several questions. Assuming that the development of a concept of chance and probability is influenced by experience, what are the conditions that bring it about? What are its precursors? Is it acquired all at once, or is it acquired gradually over a relatively long period of time? At what age is its development complete? Does every mature adult have a similarly functioning concept of chance, or are there individual differences? If so, how are they to be explained? To what extent is a concept of chance a result of formal instruction in school? What kinds of training are likely to improve upon immature or deficient concepts of chance or probability? When making probability judgments, is there a optimum strategy that can be said to be correct in each type of situation, or is there a variety of strategies more or less adequate or appropriate? To what extent is performance in a probability setting controlled by the reinforcing consequences of previous outcomes? What is the relationship between chance and probability concepts, on the one hand, and the development of linguistic ability to articulate them, on the other? In what ways are various probability tasks alike, and how do they differ? What makes some tasks seem harder than others? What is the relationship between the development of concepts of chance or probability and cognitive development in general? These do not seem to be trivial questions. Indeed, many of them have been addressed in published research reports and monographs. The purpose of this chapter is to review procedures that have been devised to investigate some of these questions and to evaluate the conclusions that have tentatively been drawn.
The overall goal of this chapter is to discuss perspectives for using technology in statistics education. For this purpose, we will analyse and illustrate new revolutionary developments in statistics itself. We intend to make sense of statistical software tools by relating them to subject matter developments and to analytical perspectives generated by the requirements of software from a didactical point of view. New developments in statistics education and curriculum dependent educational software tools will be critically related to the technological and subject matter changes outside school.
The present paper represents a summary of the results of a workshop on statistical education.
In discussing the teaching of statistics, I will first show why statistics is not properly considered as a field of mathematics. Then I will illustrate the inadequacy of the theory-driven mode of teaching through discussion of a simple setting that is considered in every first course. Finally, I will make some comments on useful principles and content for teaching statistics as statistics.
The authors of this paper represent a variety of disciplines and levels of experience in teaching statistics.
This paper discusses different forms of statistical education in today's schools.
This paper discusses changes in secondary school curriculum to include more statistics education.