Literature Index

What is important to assess in statistics education? Usually the answer is derived from course content, i.e., teachers assess key elements of what they have taught. This talk focuses on critical statistical skills needed by adults as part of general everyday or workplace functioning. The talk is motivated by emerging plans by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for a new Program for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC) in coming years. PIAAC will be somewhat similar in general terms to the PISA assessment program of high-school students which is now implemented in dozens of countries on a cyclical basis, but will focus on the skills of adults who are outside formal schooling, and on their economic and social participation.<br>One of the several domains assessed in PIAAC will be numeracy, and one of the strands in it will be knowledge of statistics (data and chance). We need to identify core knowledge areas expected of adults in data/chance which are valued enough to spend precious assessment time on in multiple countries, using realistic stimuli or authentic tasks which are likely to arise in the lives of many adults. The talk will present some of the design principles of the numeracy assessment in PIAAC, and solicit suggestions for possible assessment tasks. The discussion will emphasize the need for linking class assessments and real-life demands, in order to enhance learners' ability to transfer learned skills and cope effectively with functional statistical demands in the real world.

This paper describes an educational tool, Critiquing Statistics, that is designed to foster and facilitate reasoning about statistical investigations involving descriptive statistics (e.g., measures of central tendency and variability) in middle school. This tool is being developed as part of a large scale research project emphasizing statistical investigation where students generate a research question; collect, analyze, interpret, and represent data; and communicate results to peers. However, the objective of this particular tool is to provide students with a critiquing activity that enhances students reflection on their own statistical investigations and those of others. In this way, Critiquing Statistics is intended to promote self-assessment and learning as well as reasoning. Students are given opportunities to enhance their reasoning skills by critiquing statistical investigations performed by former students, after having conducted their own research. Discussions about what could be done better in the statistics projects is facilitated through technology that allows students to view digitized videotapes as well as appropriate data and graphics files. These discussions are guided by an understanding of assessment criteria for investigations, which the Critiquing Statistics environment opens up for public viewing. Students engage in small group discussions of these criteria and apply them to the projects they are required to assess. This activity thereby promotes dialogue about the appropriateness of statistical methods, data collection procedures, graphical representations, analyses, and interpretation of data. Such discussions can be used to build a community of scientific reasoners who share their knowledge, reasoning, and argumentation.

Because we focus on modeling in school students, rather than in professional scientists, we devote considerable effort to understanding the development of model-based reasoning and to forms of practice that support this form of reasoning. When thinking about the developmental roots for modeling, we find it useful to recall that at its most basic level, a model is an analogy.

This chapter frames the main issues with which this volume deals. The chapter examines common goals for statistics education at both precollege (school) and college levels, describes the resulting challenges for assessment in statistics education, and outlines the main issues addressed by each of the chapters in this volume. Finally, needs for future research and development are discussed.