[Forum SIS] Fwd: New statistics education papers in latest Int Statistical Review

[Maria Gabriella Ottaviani]

>
>From: c.wild at auckland.ac.nz
>Date: Mon, 23 Aug 2010 07:47:55 +1200
>
>Bcc: Mariagabriella.Ottaviani at uniroma1.it
>
>
>The latest issue of the International Statistical Review (Issue 2,
>2010) has three important and very readable papers on statistics
>education by well-known members of IASE who were prominent at ICOTS 8
>
>*  “On Becoming a Statistician—A Qualitative View”  by Peter
>Petocz and Anna Reid
>*  “Understanding Learners and Users of Statistics” by Iddo Gal
>and Irena Ograjenšek
>*  “Statistics and the Modern Student” by Robert Gould
>
>The first two papers give us insights into what qualitative research
>methods, or mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, can do for
>statistics education.  The third paper by Rob Gould is a forward
>looking paper introducing us to the changing nature of the data our
>students are experiencing in their lives.
>
>Find at:
>http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/insr.2010.78.issue-2/issuetoc
>
>The abstracts follow:
>
>“On Becoming a Statistician—A Qualitative View” by Peter Petocz
>and Anna Reid
>
>In this paper, we highlight some qualitative facets of the discipline
>of statistics and argue that a qualitative approach, in particular a
>qualitative methodology known as phenomenography, allows us to
>research important aspects of statistics pedagogy. We summarize
>several components of our recent research into students' conceptions
>of statistics, their learning of statistics, our teaching of
>statistics, and their perceptions of their future professional work.
>We have obtained this information on the basis of analyses of several
>series of interviews with students studying statistics, both as
>statistics majors and as service students. In each of these cases,
>the broadest views relate in some way to personal connection, growth,
>and change. In other words, they contain a strong ontological
>component—focusing on being or becoming a statistician—above and
>beyond the standard epistemological component—focusing on the
>knowledge required to do statistics. We discuss the importance of
>personal change in becoming a statistician, or an informed
>professional user of statistics, and investigate the pedagogical
>conditions under which such change is likely to occur.
>
>“Understanding Learners and Users of Statistics” by Iddo Gal and
>Irena Ograjenšek
>
>This paper seeks to add to a scholarly dialogue regarding the role
>and value of qualitative techniques in research on learning and using
>statistics. The paper briefly outlines some of the core assumptions
>of
>qualitative research methods, and presents four examples to
>illustrate
>selected qualitative methods that are used by educational researchers
>and service organizations. The discussion emphasizes the need to
>integrate quantitative and qualitative approaches in research on
>learners and users of statistics, and suggests that such integration
>may be needed to study emerging web-based communities of learners and
>users of statistics.
>
>“Statistics and the Modern Student” by Robert Gould
>
>The introductory statistics course has traditionally targeted
>consumers of statistics with the intent of producing a citizenry
>capable of a critical analysis of basic published statistics. More
>recently, statistics educators have attempted to centre the intro
>course on real data, in part to motivate students and in part to
>create a more relevant course. The success of this approach is
>predicated on providing data that the students see as real and
>relevant. Modern students, however, have a different view of data
>than did students of 10 or even 5 years ago. Modern statistics
>courses must adjust to the fact that students’ first exposure to
>data occurs outside the academy.
>
>I hope you enjoy them.
>
>Best, Chris Wild
>(International Statistical Review Editor covering statistical
>education)