New Standards Require Teaching More Statistics

Abstract

Mathematics teacher education programs often need to respond to changing expectations and standards for K-12 curriculum and accreditation. New standards for high school mathematics in the United States include a strong emphasis in statistics. This article reports results from a mixed methods cross-institutional study examining the preparedness of preservice secondary mathematics teachers to teach statistics and identifying factors and experiences that influence their preparedness. Our results suggest that the cohort of teachers entering secondary mathematics classrooms in 2015-2016 were not well prepared to teach statistics. Specific suggestions are given for how teacher education programs must rise to the challenge of preparing their graduates to teach statistics.

Examining How Online Professional Development Impacts Teachers’ Beliefs About Teaching Statistics

“…Beliefs and perspectives that teachers may hold specifically related to statistics include ideas about the nature of statistics, about themselves as learners of statistics, and about what they perceive as important goals for students' learning of statistics (e.g., Eichler, 2011;Pierce & Chick, 2011). Statistics beliefs and perspectives include how teachers view themselves as learners of statistics, which often include memories of lessons focused on graphing or using formulas to generate statistical measures, often without the aid of technology (Lovett & Lee, 2017). Such experiences may lead teachers to believe statistics is about performing a set of procedures.…”

“…Such experiences may lead teachers to believe statistics is about performing a set of procedures. However, teachers may also feel that reasoning with context-rich data and uncertainty in statistical claims can make statistics difficult to learn and teach (e.g., Lovett & Lee, 2017;Leavy, Hannigan, & Fitzmaurice, 2013). One's confidence to teach statistics is then influenced by beliefs and perspectives about statistics, prior experiences in learning and teaching statistics, and understanding of statistical content (Lovett & Lee, 2017;Harrell-Williams, Sorto, Pierce, Lesser, & Murphy, 2015).…”

Improving Skills to Teach Statistics in Secondary School Through Activity-Based Workshops

“…Statistics education is contained in secondary-school curricula, but in many countriesincluding Argentina -it is usually limited to few lessons and is mainly taught in a procedural approach (Batanero & Díaz, 2010, Meletiou, 2007. There is substantial evidence that both preservice and in-service mathematics teachers usually do not receive the educational tools they need to teach statistical literacy, reasoning, and thinking (Batanero & Díaz, 2010;Begg et al, 2004;Burrill & Biehler, 2011;Lovett & Lee, 2017).…”

“…Teachers who have a weak content knowledge of statistical concepts do not feel confident to teach statistics as compared to other areas of mathematics and, accordingly, constrain their teaching to procedural aspects of statistics (Lovett & Lee, 2017). Furthermore, as their teacher education missed to provide them with content and pedagogical content knowledge, once they stand in their class, they tend to teach their students in the same manner as they were instructed in their own school life.…”

Statistical modeling in teacher education

“…Prospective teachers should have opportunities to develop their modeling skills and to reflect on their teaching actions while they are students in statistical courses. Regardless of where those opportunities arise, it is essential that prospective teachers participate in experiences in which they can learn and develop their knowledge (Lovett & Lee, 2017). We believe that one of those opportunities could be to articulate statistical modeling in teacher education.…”