TOPIC 9: An international perspective on Statistics education

The ICOTS conferences have been the ideal opportunity to springboard statistics education in developing countries by offering the knowledge of world experts to work collaboratively with local associations. It is particularly noticeable in countries from Africa, Asia and South America where the hosting of an ICOTS conference has lead to a noticeable increased interest and awareness of statistics education.

The global trend towards striving for statistical literacy of citizens has lead to school curricula all over the world containing vast amounts of statistical material. The CensusAtSchool project, undertaken in various countries, offers the prefect opportunity for the teachers to make their lessons more enjoyable by giving a worldwide perspective on analysis of the data collected in the local classroom.

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SESSION 9A: Statistics teaching in South America

9A1: COMPARATIVE STUDY ON TEACHING STATISTICS IN MATHEMATICS AND NON-MATHEMATICS COLLEGES IN SANTA FE (ARGENTINA)

Liliana Tauber
Universidad Católica de Santa Fe, Argentina

We seek to carry out a comparison of the diverse characteristics that are presented in the teaching and learning of Statistics in different university careers. We will compare the Statistics curriculum that are developed in each degree program, the objectives that are pursued, the different didactic methods that are used in each case, the applications used, the work with computer and other simulation instruments and the types of problems that receive larger emphasis in each discipline. From the student's point of view, we are carrying out an investigation that is in a first exploratory phase which will help us to describe the prior knowledge that the students bring when beginning their first statistic course, in connection with the intuitive interpretation of simple statistical graphics, such as graphics of bars and sectors, and interpretation of charts of frequencies.

9A2: TEACHING STATISTICS IN BRAZIL

Irene Mauricio Cazorla
Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Brazil

Statistics in Brazil has slowly been regaining its prestige, both in educational and academic scope, because of its importance in the scientific and ethical formation of the citizen and its growing applications in a society with increasing levels of knowledge. This is evidenced by the guidelines contained in the Brazilian National Curricular Parameters for elementary and secondary education, which includes, for the first time, statistics teaching from childhood. However, the teachers who are pedagogues and undergraduates in Mathematics (responsible for this job) have not been prepared for this challenge. This paper analyzes the present state of research in Statistics teaching in Brazil, by focusing on elementary and secondary education and the training of teachers. We conclude that it is necessary to rethink the training of Mathematics teachers in elementary and secondary schools, to consolidate the research groups, and to make it possible to socialize all the knowledge gained at school in order to reach a higher level of statistical literacy.

9A3: APPLIED STATISTICS TEACHING IN MEXICO

Ignacio Mendez
Cd. Universitaria, Mexico

In this presentation we first will point out some epistemological aspects to place Statistics and its applications in acquiring knowledge about the world. Then, we will make a slight approach to the relationship between Mathematics and Applied Statistics. Is this a discipline or a multidisciplinary field? Afterwards, we will present a general view of the teaching of Statistics in the higher education in Mexico: bachelors and postgraduates. Finally, we will make a general approach to the state of statistical applications in different fields of development in Mexico.

9A4: THE NEED OF STATISTICS EDUCATION JOURNALS IN SPANISH-SPEAKING COUNTRIES: THE CASE OF ‘HIPOTESIS ALTENATIVA’ (ALTERNATIVE HYPOTHESIS)

Audy Salcedo
Universidad Central de Venezuela, Venezuela

Statistics Education (SE) is a relatively new field of knowledge production that has rapidly evolved during the last decade. An indication of this development is the large amount of information available in the proceedings of professional meetings such as ICOTS. However, it is also a fact that only a small part of Statistics Education activities are disseminated in the Spanish language. This reduces the possibilities for Spanish speaking professors and researchers to be informed about results and advances in the field. Hipotesis Alternativa (HA), or Alternative Hypothesis, an electronic bulletin established in 2000, has been created to try to fulfill that need. The bulletin has been of great help for statistics educators in Spanish-Speaking countries. This paper presents an overview of HA accomplishments and some ideas as to the changes that could be made to improve this bulletin.

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SESSION 9B: Teaching Statistics in African and other Developing Countries

9B1: LOOKING AT THE MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM AND MATHEMATICS TEXTBOOKS TO IDENTIFY STATISTICAL CONCEPTS THAT LESOTHO’S HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS EXPERIENCE

M. V. Polaki
National University of Lesotho, Lesotho

Recent research on Basotho pre-university students’ understanding of statistical concepts has revealed some serious discrepancies. In order to lay a foundation for addressing this problem, this paper examined the nature of statistical concepts these students have experienced by looking at the high school mathematics curriculum and the type of statistical tasks used in two high school mathematics textbooks that are used in the entire country. With regard to the nature of statistical concepts covered, we found that the syllabus and the textbooks do not touch on sampling issues and related concepts. Furthermore, the statistical tasks used in the textbooks were predominantly procedural, with little or no room for data analysis, critical interpretation of the data, and statistical inferences. Additionally, both documents seemed to have paid little, if any, attention to the use of technology to support the acquisition of key statistical concepts. This paper presents these results, drawing some instructional, curricular and research implications.

9B2: STATUS OF STATISTICS IN AFRICA: THE CASE OF ETHIOPIA

Temesgen Zewotir
University of KwaZulu Natal, South Africa

In spite of the fact that topics in introductory statistics are invariably integrated into different levels of school Mathematics syllabi and almost all university graduates are required to take at least one course in Statistics, the proportion of incoming students to the field of Statistics is not as remarkable as its wider applicability. On the other hand it seems that the needs for appreciating the power and uses of statistics are almost universal today. There is perhaps nothing surprising about this because career is a course of professional life or employment which affords opportunity for progress or advancement in the world. Hence career choice is a reflection of the job market or the social status accorded to the field professionals. This paper tries to investigate the attractiveness of statistics to freshmen as compared to other disciplines in Science (Mathematical science, life science, physical science, Engineering and Pharmacy).

9B3: FACTORS INFLUENCING THE PSYCHOLOGY STUDENT IN DEALING WITH STATISTICS COURSES

Feisal A. Yunis
Cairo University, Egypt

Psychology students usually rate Statistics courses among the most difficult. The objective of the present study is to explore some aspects of the difficulties encountered by Psychology students in studying statistics and how these difficulties relate to statistics anxiety. A questionnaire measuring Psychology students’ evaluation of the level of difficulty of the statistics courses studied; together with their opinions concerning the reasons for these difficulties was administered to a sample of 152 female undergraduate Psychology students at Cairo University. In addition, a measure of statistics anxiety was also used. Difficulties reported by students were in five categories in the following order: course content, teaching, examinations, relevance of statistics, and student characteristics. The perceived level of difficulty and abstraction were related to attitudes and opinions towards statistics and to the grades of the previous year.

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SESSION 9C: Statistics teaching in Asia

9C1: CURRICULUM DESIGN: TO ENHANCE STUDENTS’ LEARNING

Li Jun, Zhao Xiaoping
East China Normal University, China

China’s Ministry of Education is pushing a reform to include statistics and probability in its national elementary and secondary curriculum. First, the history of introducing statistics and probability into school in China is examined in this paper. Then, the intentions and characters of the new National Curriculum Standards are summarized. Finally, we take the teaching of “average” as an example to illustrate what we could do to make statistics and probability seem coherent by better design of textbooks.

9C2: ON DEMAND STATISTICS COURSES USING NEW TECHNOLOGIES IN JAPAN

Michiko Watanabe
Toyo University, Japan
Kazunori Yamaguchi
Rikkyo University, Japan

Recently most Japanese universities have been interested in new media education systems via the Internet. We are the key committee members of the Cyber Campus Consortium (CCC) for Statistics, which is one of consortiums of Japan Universities Association for Computer Education (JUSE), a non-profit organization under the auspices of Japanese Ministry of Education. The main purpose of the consortium is mutual cooperation between universities, which achieves the educational environment that could not be obtained by one university on the network through the portal site of JUSE. In this paper we introduce on demand statistics courses and multimedia teaching materials developed for this CCC project with international cooperation.

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SESSION 9D: CensusAtSchool

9D1: MEASURING SUCCESS: HOW CENSUSATSCHOOL ENGAGES CANADIAN STUDENTS IN ACTIVE LEARNING OUTCOMES

Mary Townsend
Statistics Canada, Canada

This paper examines the experiential process of statistical learning involved in Statistics Canada’s CensusAtSchool project. It profiles students’ learning outcomes and the contribution of classroom teachers, pre-service teachers, school boards and senior management of Statistics Canada in the project’s success.

9D2: CENSUSATSCHOOL IN AUSTRALIA

Soo Kong
Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australia
Anthony Harradine
Prince Alfred College, Australia

The CensusAtSchool project is an initiative undertaken by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) aimed at meeting two key objectives: (1) the development of statistical literacy amongst 10 – 17 year old students across Australia; (2) to promote the 2006 Census of Population and Housing. The paper highlights the Australian experience to date, including an outline of how the project works in Australia; the processes involved; and the challenges/success and lessons learnt. It will also outline the collaborative arrangements with Australian education intermediaries and the development of support materials and activities for classroom use.

9D3: DATA HANDLING FROM A CLASSROOM PERSPECTIVE IN THE UK

Emma Knights
Avon Valley College, United Kingdom

An approach to teaching Data Handling across Secondary Education, using CensusAtSchool and related data handling material to develop secondary students’ knowledge of statistical techniques, alongside the development of skills of interpretation and analysis. The approach increases both confidence and capability when handling data. This will be framed in the context of a student population with low expectations of themselves and low aspirations. The students are motivated and engaged using the CensusAtSchool project, which, by using their data has a positive effect on both teaching and learning.