Teaching Statistics And Quantitative Methods In The 21st Century

This work, which provides a guide for revising and expanding statistical and quantitative methods pedagogy, is useful for novice and seasoned instructors at both undergraduate and graduate levels, inspiring them to use transformative approaches to train students as future researchers. Is it time for a radical revision in our pedagogical orientation? How are we currently teaching introductory statistics and quantitative methods, and how should we teach them? What innovations are used, what is in development? This ground-breaking edited volume addresses these questions and more, providing cutting-edge guidance from highly accomplished teachers. Many current textbooks and syllabi differ in only superficial ways from those used 50 years ago, yet the field of quantitative methods—and its relationship to the research enterprise—has expanded in many important ways. A philosophical axiom underlying this book is that introductory teaching should prepare students to potentially enter more advanced quantitative methods training and ultimately to become accomplished researchers. The reader is introduced to classroom innovation, and to both pragmatic and philosophical challenges to the status quo, motivating a broad revolution in how introductory statistics and quantitative methods are taught. Designed to update and renovate statistical pedagogy, this material will stimulate students, new instructors, and experienced teachers.

This book focuses on international research in statistics education, providing a solid understanding of the challenges in learning statistics. It presents the teaching and learning of statistics in various contexts, including designed settings for young children, students in formal schooling, tertiary level students, and teacher professional development. The book describes research on what to teach and platforms for delivering content (curriculum), strategies on how to teach for deep understanding, and includes several chapters on developing conceptual understanding (pedagogy and technology), teacher knowledge and beliefs, and the challenges teachers and students face when they solve statistical problems (reasoning and thinking). This new research in the field offers critical insights for college instructors, classroom teachers, curriculum designers, researchers in mathematics and statistics education as well as policy makers and newcomers to the field of statistics education. Statistics has become one of the key areas of study in the modern world of information and big data. The dramatic increase in demand for learning statistics in all disciplines is accompanied by tremendous growth in research in statistics education. Increasingly, countries are teaching more quantitative reasoning and statistics at lower and lower grade levels within mathematics, science and across many content areas. Research has revealed the many challenges in helping learners develop statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking, and new curricula and technology tools show promise in facilitating the achievement of these desired outcomes.

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 the literature should be tremendously helpful for those involved in teaching and researching introductory courses. Randall E. Groth, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education, Salisbury University, USA

This book presents the breadth and diversity of empirical and practical work done on statistics education around the world. A wide range of methods are used to respond to the research questions that form it's base. Case studies of single students or teachers aimed at understanding reasoning processes, large-scale experimental studies attempting to generalize trends in the teaching and learning of statistics are both employed. Various epistemological stances are described and utilized. The teaching and learning of statistics is presented in multiple contexts in the book. These include designed settings for young children, students in formal schooling, tertiary level students, vocational schools, and teacher professional development. A diversity is evident also in the choices of what to teach (curriculum), when to teach (learning trajectory), how to teach (pedagogy), how to demonstrate evidence of learning (assessment) and what challenges teachers and students face when they solve statistical problems (reasoning and thinking).

This handbook connects the practice of statistics to the teaching and learning of the subject with contributions from experts in several disciplines. Chapters present current challenges and methods of statistics education in the changing world for statistics and mathematics educators. Issues addressed include current and future challenges in professional development of teachers, use of technology tools, design of learning environments and appropriate student assessments. This handbook presents challenging and inspiring international research perspectives on the history and nature, current issues, and future directions of statistics education and statistics education research.

Great events in history have always brought about great changes in the lifestyles of humans. Every invention, every great war and every discovery has challenged the ways in which people lived up until that point. The 21st century bears the effects of various advancements in several different parts of human life. Sometimes it is called a “space age”, sometimes an “information age”, or a “computer age”. Some people have called it a digital age, or new media age too. However it is named, the time in which we live has challenged the lifestyles of the past and has brought about new requirements in skills and practices. Media literacy, leadership, critical thinking, and problem solving, are among the new skills required by the 21st century. However, the relationship between these skills and education has not yet been fully established. To this end, this book discusses these skills through theoretical and empirical studies in the context of Turkey.

A key distinction between an education doctorate, or Ed.D., and other doctorates in the field of education is the development of scholar practitioners armed with knowledge and skills to successfully lead change in their profession. Critical inquiry is one such skill, increasingly taught in many Ed.D. programs in some form of applied research methodology. Teaching Critical Inquiry and Applied Research: Moving Beyond Traditional Methods gathers insights from Ed.D. faculty regarding how the teaching of applied research occurs to develop scholar practitioners prepared to bring change to their respective professional fields. The 13 chapters provide a broad coverage of related topics, which includes advocacy and leadership through research, innovative features of methods courses, and methodology-focused program redesign. Each chapter includes strategies and recommendations for others interested in implementing something similar in their courses and programs. This book also captures student voices, in the form of vignettes written by students within each chapter, to illustrate the powerful impact of learning related to critical inquiry and applied research. Teaching Critical Inquiry and Applied Research is an excellent text for classrooms devoted to critical research, critical pedagogy, and other courses.

This book provides a detailed description of research and application outcomes from the Assessment and Teaching of 21st Century Skills project, which explored a framework for understanding the nature of these skills. The major element of this new volume is the presentation of research information from the global assessment of two 21st century skills that are amenable to teaching and learning: collaborative problem solving, and learning in digital networks. The outcomes presented include evidence to support the validity of assessment of 21st century skills and descriptions of consequent pedagogical approaches which can be used both to teach the skills and to use them to enhance key learning goals in secondary education systems. The sections of the volume are connected through a focus on the degree to which innovative assessment tasks measure the constructs of interest. This focus is informed by conceptual and methodological issues associated with affordances of 21st century computer-based assessment. How understanding of the nature of the skills, as derived from these assessments, can guide approaches to the integration of 21st century skills in the classroom, is informed by initiatives adopted by participating countries. The guiding questions in this volume are: "Do the assessment tasks measure the constructs?" and "What are the implications for assessment and teaching in the classroom?" It is the third volume of papers from this project published by Springer.