STATISTICAL LITERACY: FACTUAL ASSESSMENT TO SUPPORT<br>HYPOTHETICAL THINKING


Authors: 
SCHIELD, Milo
Pages: 
online
Year: 
2007
Publisher: 
Proceedings of IASE satellite conference
URL: 
http://www.swinburne.edu.au/lss/statistics/
Abstract: 

The GAISE College report suggested that teachers assess statistical literacy by students "interpreting<br>or critiquing articles in the news." Media stories typically present summary statistics to support nonstatistical<br>conclusions. Summary statistics require hypothetical thinking which in turn requires drill<br>in factual exercises involving deductive right-wrong answers. This paper presents a wide range of<br>deductive exercises that may help students develop the hypothetical thinking needed to deal with the<br>fact that all statistics are socially constructed. This paper presents 130 different topics involving factbased<br>exercises with objective answers. Of these, 50% are numerical, 30% are number-related and<br>20% are non-numeric. Selected examples are presented. At least half of these exercises have been<br>used by students in a web-based format. These exercises are classified by topics in traditional<br>research statistics and in statistical literacy.

The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education