Major changes to the mathematics courses in Victoria have meant that the amount of probability and statistics being taught in schools will undergo a large and dramatic increase over the next few years. Somewhere around 20-50% of mathematics at Year 11 and 12 (the first two years of secondary school) will now be probability and statistics. Not many teachers currently practicing in schools have the expertise to tackle much of the subject matter with confidence and enthusiasm. The result is that there is a need for professional development of teachers, which is both extensive and urgent. The Statistical Education Unit at the University of Melbourne has endeavoured to meet this need through various strategies, from half-day workshops to more formal courses running three hours weekly over thirteen weeks. These have met with varying success. Our conclusions and recommendations based on these experiences were presented.
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