An Experimental Approach For Teaching Statistics In The Egyptian schools

Teachers of mathematics in Egyptian schools almost depend on traditional lectures and discussions in teaching the statistics units which concentrate often on either mere computational aspects or theoretical concepts and distributions. To change this situation, an experimental approach is suggested to be used in Egyptian schools as a useful base for teaching and learning the subject in these schools. Questions interspersed throughout the experiments intend to promote statistical thinking among students, to help them to discuss the results obtained and to formulate final conclusions. One of the basic features of the approach is to give students the chance to use some of the methods used by real statisticians, then to find out relationships, new meanings and findings for themselves. By using such an approach, students can collect, analyze data and discover things by themselves. A field study conducted for preparatory stage students in Egypt (11 - 14 years old) has revealed the effectiveness of the suggested approach in achieving its goals.