Literature Index

Abstract The statistical preparation of in-service teachers, particularly middle school teachers, has been an area of concern for several years. This paper discusses the creation and delivery of an introductory statistics course as part of a master’s degree program for in-service mathematics teachers. The initial course development took place before the advent of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (CCSSM) and the Mathematics Education of Teachers (MET II) Reports, and even before the GAISE Pre-K-12 Report. Since then, even with the recommendations of MET II and the widespread implementation of the CCSSM, the guidance available to faculty wishing to develop a statistics course for professional development of in service teachers remains scarce. We give an overview of the master’s degree program and discuss aspects of the course, including the goals for the course, course planning and development, the instructional team, course delivery and modifications, and lessons learned through five offerings. With this paper, we share our experiences developing such a course, the evolution of the course over multiple iterations, and what we have learned about its value to the middle-level teachers who have participated. As more and more universities are being asked to develop courses specifically for in-service teachers, we wrote this article in the hopes of providing guidance to others, and to share our lessons learned.

Students in my applied advanced statistics course for educational administration doctoral students developed a follow-up survey for teacher preparation programs, using the following scale development processes: adopting a framework; developing items; providing evidence of content validity; conducting a pilot test; and analyzing data. The students developed the survey items by using the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) principles as the framework to operationally define the knowledge and skills that highly qualified teachers should possess. The students analyzed the data from the pilot study for their final exam in the course. The follow-up survey currently is being used by our university for program evaluation, improvement, and accreditation.

Given the importance of instruction in promoting students' statistical literacy, a cohesive picture of the development of students' statistical thinking is needed to better inform classroom teachers and curriculum developers. With this in mind, one of the authors developed a framework to characterize middle school students' statistical thinking within four statistical processes, across four levels of thinking. A subsequent study (Langrall, Mooney, Hofbauer, & Johnson, 2001) addressed gaps in Mooney's framework. This paper describes how the findings of the Langrall et al. study were merged with the framework and reports on resulting modifications to the entire framework.

The study was conducted to (a) determine the development of children's understanding of seven properties of the arithmetic mean and (b) assess the effects of the material used in the testing (continuous, discontinuous) and the medium of presentation (story, concrete, and numerical). Twenty children were selected at each of the ages 8, 10, 12, and 14 years. Different development courses of the children's reasoning were found on some tasks measuring the properties of the the average. No significant effects were found for the materials used or the medium of presentation. The findings are discussed in terms of their importance for developmental psychology and educational practice.