TRAINING STATISTICS TEACHERS FOR BOTSWANA SENIOR SCHOOLS:<br>IS IT NECESSARY?

The study sought teachers' views on the need to train statistics teachers in Botswana. A purposive sample comprising 23 senior teachers and 30 ordinary teachers responded to an open-ended questionnaire soliciting their experiences about the teaching of statistics in schools. It was found that all teachers offering statistics had limited qualifications to teach statistics as they have been trained for mathematics teaching. The biggest challenges in statistical instructional practices were difficulties in solving questions and explaining concepts to students. The study findings suggest the necessity to train teachers so as to empower them with statistical pedagogical content knowledge and knowledge for teaching statistics.