Many adults who need an understanding of statistical concepts have limited mathematical skills.
They need a teaching approach that includes as little mathematical context as possible. Iterative
participatory qualitative research (action research) was used to develop a statistical literacy
course for adult learners informed by teaching in traditional first year university courses,
workplace based training, teacher workshops and Masters of Public Policy courses. The latter
learners in particular regularly come across confidence intervals and statistical significance in
their everyday reading. The goal is to give them a conceptual rather than theoretical
understanding of inferential concepts by developing inferential statistics logic through the
introduction of exact probabilities in simple non-parametric tests (two-tailed coin tossing) and
then contingency tables and parametric situations. The final course developed for the New
Zealand Certificate of Official Statistics uses “hands-on” examples to reinforce concepts before
proceeding to computer simulations. It emphasizes evaluation of the strength of statistical
significance and its relationship to the possible cost of making an incorrect decision. Case studies
that have influenced government policy reinforce inferential concepts and demonstrate the
importance of statistics in complex real problems.
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