A Statistics Carol

A Ghost Story of Statistics Education

The grumpy old statistics teacher

A Visit from the Ghost of Statistics Education Past

ASA: Fred Mosteller

Chervaney, N., Collier, R., Fienberg, S., Johnson, P., & Neter, J. (1977). A framework for the development of measurement instruments for evaluating the introductory statistics course. The American Statistician, 31, 17–23.

Plans for first NCTM Yearbook on teaching statistics

Interest in the UKCenter for Statistics Education

Teaching Statistics (Journal)4

No graduate programs

No graduate courses

Some articles here and there, across journals, disciplines and libraries

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But Where could Someone Study Statistics Education?

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The First Ph.D. Thesis (?)

Mike ShaughnessyMichigan State UniversityDepartment of Mathematics

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The Second Ph.D. Thesis (?)

Joan GarfieldUniversity of MinnesotaEducational Psychology

Andrew 'Chick' Ahlgren and Joan Garfield assembled faculty from 11 different departments

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A Seminar on Difficulties Learning Statistics

Applied Statistics

Business

Educational Psychology

Mathematics Education

Sociology

Anthropology

Biostatistics

Curriculum and Instruction

General College

Psychology

Theoretical Statistics

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Two More Dissertations CompletedCliff KonoldUniversity of Massachusettes,Amherst

Robert delMasUniversity of Minnesota

No conferences (except ICOTS 1) or journals for publishing statistics education research

NetworksThe 'Probability Ghetto' (at mathematics education conferences International Study Group for Learning Probability and Statistics

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Trying to Make Connections

Little research and no connectionsfrom research to teaching practice

+Mostly without technology

+Mostly calculations

+A lot of probability

Unhappy statistics students

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How was Statistics being Taught?

More interest by ASA, MAA, NCTM

The Quantitative Literacy Project

Journal of Statistics Education

IASE is created and grows

Funding by NSFCreation of innovative new coursesInfluential calls for reform in the teaching of statistics (George Cobb, David Moore)

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But Things Began to Change

The Quantitative Methods in Education track in Educational Psychology approves a new area of concentration and three new graduate courses in statistics education

Mailings sent out to recruit students for the program and about the first course offering

One student applies and is accepted.

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The First Graduate Program in Statistics Education is Established

A Visit from the Ghost of Statistics Education Present

The first stat ed course is taughtBecoming a Teacher of Statistics Fall 2002

Two new statistics education journals

SERJ

TISE

CAUSE is launched

USCOTS is launched

IASE activities and ICOTS grows

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Things Keep Improving

Number of faculty has quadrupled

Students apply, graduate and get jobs

Grants are awarded

Many publications, presentations, workshops

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The Statistics Education Graduate Program Grows

17 admitted students (15 enrolled)2 M.A.

15 Ph.D.

5 Degrees awarded1 M.A.

4 Ph.D.

3 statistics education minors awarded to students outside of the department

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Students and Degrees

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Graduation 2012

Becoming a Teacher of Statistics courseTaught 9 times (5 classroom/4 online)–93 students across the university and United States

Statistics Education Research SeminarTaught 6 times (classroom)–39 students

2 published journal articles

Statistics Teaching InternshipTaken by 10 students

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Courses

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Dani Ben-ZviMichael Bulmer

Beth Chance

George CobbRobert delMas

Bill Finzer

Christine Franklin

Amy FroehlichIddo Gal

Robert Gould Bill Harkness

Nicholas Horton

Daniel KaplanCliff Konold

Julie Legler

Richard Lesh

Robin LockXiao-Li Meng

Tamara MooreDennis Pearl

Michael Rodriguez

Allan RossmanDaniel Schwartz

Laurie Snell

Chris Wild

Invited Speakers

24 grants (internal and national) totaling $3,766,34640 journal articles

16 book chapters

4 books

106 conference presentations/posters22 workshops

46 invited webinars/seminars/professional talks

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It has been a Productive 10 Years...

7 published journal articles or book chapters that graduate students have co-authored

27 conference presentations/posters co-presented

2 workshops co-presented

8 invited webinars/seminars/professional talks co-presented

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...Even for Our Students

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...Really Productive.

1 national award for the statistics education program (APA)

6 national faculty awards

4 graduate student teaching awards

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We are an Award Winning Program...

10 elected or appointed positions held in statistics education (6 currently)

7 associate editor positions (on Statistics Education journals)

3 current editor/co-editor positions (on Statistics Education journals)

8 assessment instruments developed for use by the statistics education community

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...that Believes in Professional Service

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And our Mission is to Promote Change to Improve the Teaching

and Learning of Statistics

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

- Margaret Mead

Better connections between research and practice

Many new ideas and curricula

Continued emphasis on improved pedagogy

ASA endorsed Guidelines for Graduate Programs in Statistics Education (2009)

Better assessments to evaluate student learning

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The Present is Pretty Good

A Visit from the Ghost of Statistics Education Yet to Come

Graduates of statistics education research programs going off into the worldNew graduate programs and courses being designed and launched

More conferences devoted to better teaching of statistics

USCOTS (Making Change Happen)

eCOTS

National survey on statistics teaching (e-ATLAS Project) 31

The Future is Even More Promising

Open your eyes, its an exciting time

New prestige for statistics

Exciting new data

Many great resources

A thriving statistics education community

There is NO EXCUSE for not taking the teaching of statistics seriously and striving to be an excellent teacher

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Message to the Grumpy Statistics Teacher

The grumpy statistics teacher was grumpy no more, but taught

with renewed vigor, using research-based classroom and assessment

practices.

All of you contributed to it!

After 10 years of having the only graduate program in statistics education we are excited to see other programs getting ready to admit students.

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And this Optimistic View of the Future is Possible Because...

Thank you!