Developing Students' Statistical Reasoning: Connecting Research and Teaching Practice

by Joan Garfield, Dani Ben-Zvi

Overview

Increased attention is being paid to the need for statistically educated citizens: statistics is now included in the K-12 mathematics curriculum, increasing numbers of students are taking courses in high school, and introductory statistics courses are required in college. However, increasing the amount of instruction is not sufficient to prepare statistically literate citizens. A major change is needed in how statistics is taught. To bring about this change, three dimensions of teacher knowledge need to be addressed: their knowledge of statistical content, their pedagogical knowledge, and their statistical-pedagogical knowledge, i.e., their specific knowledge about how to teach statistics. This book is written for mathematics and statistics educators and researchers. It summarizes the research and highlights the important concepts for teachers to emphasize, and shows the interrelationships among concepts. It makes specific suggestions regarding how to build classroom activities, integrate technological tools, and assess students’ learning.

This is a unique book. While providing a wealth of examples through lessons and data sets, it is also the best attempt by members of our profession to integrate suggestions from research findings with statistics concepts and pedagogy. The book’s message about the importance of listening to research is loud and clear, as is its message about alternative ways of teaching statistics. This book will impact instructors, giving them pause to consider: "Is what I’m doing now really the best thing for my students? What could I do better?"

J. Michael Shaughnessy, Professor, Dept of Mathematical Sciences, Portland State University, USA

This is a much-needed text for linking research and practice in teaching statistics. The authors have provided a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art in statistics education research. The insights they have gleaned from theliterature should be tremendously helpful for those involved in teaching and researching introductory courses.

Randall E. Groth, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education, Salisbury University, USA

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789048178629
Publisher:	Springer Netherlands
Publication date:	11/23/2010
Edition description:	Softcover reprint of hardcover 1st ed. 2008
Pages:	408
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.25(h) x 0.24(d)

Table of Contents

The Foundations of Statistics Education.- The Discipline of Statistics Education.- Research on Teaching and Learning Statistics.- Creating a Statistical Reasoning Learning Environment.- Assessment in Statistics Education.- Using Technology to Improve Student Learning of Statistics.- From Research to Practice: Developing the~Big Ideas of Statistics.- Learning to Reason About Data.- Learning to Reason About Statistical Models and Modeling.- Learning to Reason About Distribution.- Learning to Reason About Center.- Learning to Reason About Variability.- Learning to Reason About Comparing Groups.- Learning to Reason About Samples and Sampling Distributions.- Learning to Reason About Statistical Inference.- Learning to Reason About Covariation.- Implementing Change Through Collaboration.- Collaboration in the Statistics Classroom.- Collaboration in Teaching and Research.

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

This is a unique book. While providing a wealth of examples through lessons and data sets, it is also the best attempt by members of our profession to integrate suggestions from research findings with statistics concepts and pedagogy.

The book’s message about the importance of listening to research is loud and clear, as is its message about alternative ways of teaching statistics. This book will impact instructors, giving them pause to consider: "Is what I’m doing now really the best thing for my students? What could I do better?"

Professor J. Michael Shaughnessy, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Portland State University, USA

This is a much-needed text for linking research and practice in teaching statistics. The authors have provided a comprehensive overview of the current state-of-the-art in statistics education research. The insights they have gleaned from the literature should be tremendously helpful for those involved in teaching and researching introductory courses.

Dr Randall E. Groth, Mathematics Education, Salisbury University, USA

"Garfield and Ben-Zvi have taken on an enormous task in their book, Developing Students’ Statistical Reasoning. … The book contains an extended reference list that will be of great assistance to those who not only want to implement change in their teaching but also want to carry out research on that change with a view to reporting to the wider statistical educational community. … the authors have met their goal of providing a new way of thinking about teaching and learning introductory formal statistics courses." (Jane Watson, The International Journal on Mathematics Education, Vol. 41, 2009)

"The main goal of the book … is to reconciliate the research results with practical suggestions for teachers. … Teachers of introductory statistics courses at the high school or college levelwill find in this book ideas, activities, research summaries directly applicable in classrooms. … Unquestionably, the book will be … a worthy resource filling in the gap between the researchers and the practitioners in the fast expanding field of statistics education." (Mihai Cipu, Zentralblatt MATH, Vol. 1156, 2009)

From the Publisher