Statistics education is a growing field of research and development at school and university level. The topic group will focus on presenting and discussing recent research.

Statistics at school level is usually taught in the mathematics classroom in connection with learning probability. Inferential statistics is based on basic understandings of probability. Our topic includes probabilistic aspects in learning statistics, whereas research with a specific focus on learning probability is being discussed TSG 13 of ICME.

We are open to all kinds of relevant research papers, but our specific focus will be on the following topics

Students’ thinking and reasoning about distributions (including variability, comparing distributions)

Students’ making inferences from data (from informal inference to more formal inference, inference from sample to population or process, from data to context, role of models and probability)

Statistical literacy

Role of technology (tools, applets, internet)

Research on teachers and teaching of statistics

Submissions and proposals

Individuals are encouraged to submit a paper for consideration by the Organizing Team to be accepted for oral presentation in the TSG or as a paper presented by distribution within the group.

Please send proposals to Rolf Biehler (biehler@mathematik.uni-kassel.de) AND to Mike Shaughnessy (mikesh@pdx.edu) with the subject ICME 11 proposal. Accepted papers will be published on the website of the conference and on a conference CD. If you do not specify presentation by distribution, we will assume that you wish your paper to be considered for oral presentation. Because only a limited number of papers can be presented orally, you may be asked to accept presentation by distribution. The time for presentation will be limited to 15 minutes; some few talks of general interest may have 30 minutes.

Preliminary schedule

Short outline/proposal (2 pages) — Dec 10, 2007

Answer to the authors — Jan 22, 2008

Paper Submitted — Mar 1, 2008

Papers reviewed by the organizing team — Apr 15, 2008

Final paper submitted and posted on the TSG website — May 15, 2008

Practical information

Length of proposal: 2 pages plus references – Length of final paper: 8 pages including references. Templates with format suggestions will be downloadable from the website.

Other activities linked to statistics education around ICME 11

TSG #13: Research and development in the teaching and learning of probability

More information: tsg.icme11.org/tsg/show/14

Joint ICMI/IASE Study — This conference takes place at the ITESM, Monterrey, June 30 – July 4, 2008 (the week before ICME). More information: ICMI-IASE Study

ELEE: Latin American Statistics Education Meeting — This meeting (in Spanish and Portuguese) is specifically directed to Latin American Statistics Educators and takes place at the ITESM, Monterrey, July 4-5, 2008. More information: Latin American Statistics Education Meeting

Long presentation

Influencing Statistical Literacy in the Middle Years of Schooling: The First Year of the StatSmart Project

Rosemary Callingham, University of New England, Australia;

Jane M. Watson, University of Tasmania, Australia;

Julie Donne, University of Tasmania, Australia

Who will teach them about data? — The responsibility of mathematics and statistics educators to support the integration of data analysis across all subjects

Bill Finzer and Vishakha Parvate, KCP Technologies, Emeryville, CA, USA

Revealing the Notion of Statistical Literacy within the Pisa Results

Karen François, Free University Brussels, Belgium;

Carlos Monteiro, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil;

Stijn Vanhoof, Catholic University Leuven, Belgium

‘Using models and representations in statistical contexts’ as a sub-competency of statistical literacy – Results from three empirical studies

Sebastian Kuntze, Anke Lindmeier, Kristina Reiss, University of Munich, LMU, Germany

Introductory and Intermediate Students’ Understanding and Misunderstanding of P-values and Statistical Significance

Sharon Lane-Getaz, Saint Olaf and Macalester Colleges, USA

Dynamic Technology Scaffolding: A Design Principle with Potential for Supporting Statistical Conceptual Understanding

Sandra R. Madden, Western Michigan University, USA

Building Sampling Concepts for Statistical Inference: a case study

Maxine Pfannkuch, The University of Auckland, New Zealand

Pedagogical content knowledge of a novel teacher: A case from the teaching of graphical representation

Jesús E. Pinto Sosa, University Autónoma of Yucatán, Mexico;

María Teresa González Astudillo, University of Salamanca, Spain

Mapping New Statistical Literacies and Iliteracies

Jim Ridgway, James Nicholson and Sean McCusker

University of Durham, DH1 1TA, UK

Short presentation

How do students reason about the concepts of sample and population in the context of hypothesis testing?

Birgit Christina Aquilonius, University of Stockholm, Sweden; Mary E Brenner, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

What about the P in the PPDAC Cycle? An Initial Look at Posing Questions for Statistical Investigation.

Pip Arnold, The University of Auckland, New Zealand

The contribution of statistics in teaching the concept of mathematical function

Irene Cazorla, Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz, Brazil; Claudia da Silva, Universidade São Judas Tadeu, Brazil; Miriam Utsumi, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Informal Inference: The Science Connection

Tim Erickson, Epistemological Engineering, Oakland, California, USA

Using real data in statistics classrooms – evaluating its effectiveness

Sharleen Forbes, Statistics New Zealand; John Harraway, University of Otago; Rachel Cunnliffe, University of Auckland, New Zealand

Who failed the introductory statistics examination? A study on a sample of psychology students

Silvia Galli, Matteo Ciancaleoni, Francesca Chiesi, Caterina Primi

University of Florence, Italy

Conceptions and misconceptions of average: a comparative study between teachers and students

Sandra Magina, Irene Cazorla, Verônica Gitirana and Gilda Guimarães

Teaching and learning of statistics: the project approach

Maria Manuel da Silva Nascimento, Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Department of Mathematics, Portugal; José Alexandre dos Santos Vaz Martins, Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, Portugal

How Not to Lose a Student in One Semester: e-Portfolio at the Learning and Teaching Process in Statistics

José Vicente Novegil Souto, Department of Statistics and Operational Research, University of Vigo, España; Bruno C. de Sousa, Department of Mathematics for the Science and Technology, University of Minho, Portugal

Presentation by distribution

Statistics in applied math project development done by Graduate engineering students

Patricia E Balderas Cañas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Facultad de Ingeniería

Statistics teaching and learning: The New Zealand experience

Frankcom-Burgess Gillian, Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Education

Probability and statistics teaching in brazilian elementary education

Celi Aparecida Espasandin Lopes, Universidade Cruzeiro do Sul – UNICSUL SP – Brazil

Application of item response theory in the attitudes evaluation

Claudette Maria Medeiros Vendramini, Marjorie Cristina Rocha da Silva,

Universidade São Francisco, Brazil

Schedule

Monday 7th July 

13:00 -14:00 (1 h)

A: Overview/Introduction

B: 2 long presenations: 

Finzer & Parvate; 

Ridgway & Nicholson

C: short introduction of authors of paper presentation by distribution (all 4 authors are present and bring some copies of papers)

Wednesday 9th July 

12:30 -14:00 (1,5 h)

9 short presentations of 8 minutes each_: 

Aquilonius 

Arnold 

Cazorla-Silva-Utsumi-Brazil 

Erickson 

Harraway_Forbes 

Galli 

Magina-Cazorla-Gitirana-Guimaraes 

Nascimento_Martins 

NovegildeSousa

Friday 11th July 

12:30 – 13:30 (1 h)

3 long presentations: 

Callingham & Watson; 

Pinto & Gonzales; 

Pfannkuch

Saturday 12th July 

12:00 – 13:30 (1.5 h)

A: 4 long presentations: 

Kuntze et al; 

Francois et al; 

Lane-Getaz, 

Madden

B: closing

Papers and discussion documents

The papers will soon be available for downloading here.