Teacher Education: Learning the Practice of Statistics

This exploratory project is to enhance the ability of teachers to provide high quality STEM education for all students by developing research-based materials that enable teachers to facilitate students' progress toward statistical understanding. The exploratory project has two phases. The first phase will focus on modeling student learning of difficult statistical concepts by constructing and developing a set of student learning progressions. Informed by the first phase, the second phase will focus on developing, implementing, supporting, and pilot testing instructional materials for teachers aimed at increasing knowledge and effective practice of statistical concepts. Formative and summative assessments will be used to evaluate (a) the materials, (b) the participant activities and experiences with the materials, and (c) the implementation process.

Both Common Core State Standards for Mathematics and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics standards clearly recommend the emphasis of statistics education in K-12 schools. In recent years, researchers have started to explore issues related to statistics education in Grades K-8, but little work has been done at the high school level. This exploratory project addresses a critical need in mathematics education and fills an important gap in teacher education related to high school statistics.