In line with the reform efforts in statistics education that emphasized the development of statistical literacy skills, we explored instructional goals and classroom practices of 12 college statistics teachers and analyzed them using Gal's statistical literacy model. Through focus group discussions, we find that their goals and practices in the teaching-learning-assessment cycle are primarily based on mathematical and statistical knowledge and only three displayed evidence of literacy and context knowledge, and the capability for critical questions. While these teachers indicated positive attitude towards the promotion of statistical literacy, there are gaps between attitude and classroom implementations. Aside from the need for alignment of instruction and assessment with this goal, there is need for concerted efforts towards equipping statistics teachers with the knowledge and resources necessary in the promotion of 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