New Possibilities in Statistics Instruction: Current Trends and Future Directions

This session focuses on sharing research about the current landscape of statistics instruction in high school mathematics and undergraduate introductory statistics courses, as well as our role in moving it forward and creating more equitable opportunities for students (and teachers) to learn statistics. Understanding how statistics is being taught within high school mathematics and undergraduate introductory statistics courses, as well as what preparation and resources have helped or hindered teachers' statistics instruction, can help inform strategies to support the preparation and development of statistics teachers and, in turn, equip them to support the development of their students' statistical literacy skills.

In our presentation, we will share our research findings about ways in which high school mathematics teachers across the United States are teaching statistics in a second course in algebra, as well as summarize high school teachers' experiences, choices, and constraints when teaching statistics in their algebra courses. These results offer insight into the statistical preparation of teachers and how teacher educators can continue supporting high school mathematics teachers' development as statistics instructors.  

Results from two studies – a national survey and a collective case study – investigating the characteristics, practices, and beliefs of AP Statistics teachers will be presented. Results include information regarding teachers' educational backgrounds, professional learning, and engagement with the statistics education community. Teachers' beliefs about learning and teaching statistics, as well as their planning and enactment of instruction was investigated. Contextual factors (e.g., the AP Exam, available technology, the amount of planning and instructional time available) often impact the practices of these teachers, sometimes resulting in practices that conflict with their beliefs. 

The Statistics Teaching Inventory (STI) was designed to gain insight into the teaching practices of U.S.-based, college-level introductory statistics instructors. In particular, the items on the STI were written to reflect instructional practices related to current trends and recommendations in statistics education (e.g., the 2016 college-level GAISE report). In this presentation, we will share instructors' responses to the STI to examine the current state of the curricular and instructional practices being used by introductory statistics instructors. We also use these responses to explore the extent to which instructors report that their introductory statistics courses are aligned with recommended practices as outlined by the 2016 GAISE College Report. Finally, we look ahead to how the STI will be adapted based on the drafted recommendations and student learning outcomes outlined for the upcoming GAISE report. 

Much has changed since Statistical Education of Teachers (SET)(Franklin et al., 2015) was released, including the infusion of data science in K12 education. Data science and statistics requires that students develop knowledge and skills to consider and work with bigger and more complex data, which requires that teachers develop knowledge and skills for teaching this content. We present a revised framework for the statistical education of pre-service and inservice eachers that focuses on developing teachers' knowledge for teaching content detailed in Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education II (Bargagliotti et al., 2020) in Statistical Education of Teachers II (SET II).