This article describes the need to reexamine the undergraduate discipline of statistics in light of society's needs. Traditionally, there has been too much focus on the mathematical aspects of the discipline. The article suggests courses that would meet important needs of the undergraduate statistics major and set the discipline of statistics apart from mathematics.
A project suitable for use as a first and last assignment given in an introductory experimental design course is outlined, and its implementation is discussed.
This article presents selected results from the fall 1995 Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (CBMS) survey about statistics courses, faculty, and degrees in departments of statistics, departments of mathematics or mathematical sciences, and in mathematics programs at two-year colleges.
The development of school students' understanding of comparing two data sets is explored through responses of students in individual interview settings. Eighty-eight students in grades 3 to 9 were presented with data sets in graphical form for comparison. Student responses were analysed according to a developmental cycle which was repeated in two contexts: one where the numbers of values in the data sets were the same and the other where they were different. Strategies observed within the developmental cycles were visual, numerical, or a combination of the two. The correctness of outcomes associated with using and combining these strategies varied depending upon the task and the developmental level of the response. Implications for teachers, educational planners and researchers are discussed in relation to the beginning of statistical inference during the school years.
In recent years, the growing consciousness of the importance of statistics in the training of engineers has been accompanied in the western world by an increasing dissatisfaction with the teaching of statistics in universities. Within the framework of the Educational Innovation Project (PIE) of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, a group of teachers in the Department of Statistics introduced an innovation project beginning in 1989. This project has entailed a complete restructuring of the syllabus, as well as the teaching methodology. In this paper we explain different aspects of this project, emphasizing the important role of computer resources and the satisfacory results obtained.
Einstein called special physics experiments that he did in his head gedankenexperiments (which means "thought experiments"). Can such mental experiments, or simulations, be used in statistics? In this article, I'll provide some examples of how gedankensimulation can be be used either to illustrate an important idea or to help solve problems in probability and statistics.
This magazine article describes the structure and layout of the AP Statistics exam.
This article reports an exploratory study of what 13 to 14 year olds understand when confronted by the word average in the context of an everyday situation.
Statistics instructors and others interested in the teaching of statistics will find many print and nonprint resources on this topic. The print literature on the teaching of statistics is largely anecdotal and comprises mainly recommendations for instruction based on the experiences and intuitions of individual instructors. Less than 30% of the print literature reports the results of empirical studies, but these cover a broad range of topics, including the use of computers in statistics education, teaching materials, and teaching strategies. A large portion of the nonempirical literature is devoted to descriptions of statistics courses and specific lessons that, though untested, still provide a resource for instruction. Recently numerous nonprint (electronic) resources for instruction, problem solving, and discussions about statistics instruction have also become available. These include many data sets and other instructional resources, statistics discussion groups, and the electronic Journal of Statistics Education.
In the past decade there has been a substantial increase in the number of introductory statistics courses taught at the undergraduate level. Many have argued successfully for the extensive use of writing in such courses in an attempt to highlight the interdisciplinary role of statistics and acknowledge that a good statistician must also be good at summarizing his or her analyses to nonstatisticians. This point was made by Radke-Sharpe, who went on to add that incorporating writing demands time, energy, and creativity, but that it is usually well worth the effort. This article discusses the efforts made by the authors to include writing in their courses, and some of the techniques that made the writing process painless and productive for both students and faculty.