Copyright© 2004 Avaya Inc. All rights reserved
Comments on Draft Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in
Statistics Education (GAISE)
Jim Landwehr
Avaya Labs
August 10, 2004
2
My perspective: statistician in industry with longstanding interests in statistical education, especially K-12.
Overall, document emphasizes:
• Statistics as a process to answer questions (not as a big bag of formulas)
• Use of relatively limited set of graphical displays and numerical summaries and algorithms
• Continued use of techniques learned in earlier grades on more sophisticated problems in later grades
• Limited role of probability, focusing on aspects of it that are important for inference
My general reaction: agree entirely with the principal points and most of the details.
3
Discuss connections between statistics and mathematics and computer science in the world today, and how these should impact statistics education.
What about modern Bayesian approach to problems?
• Often computationally intensive, topics of much current research interest.
• What, if any role through introductory college level?
Some related comments on topics not (yet?) addressed in the Guidelines
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• What if anything has changed from Cobb ’92, or is this report mainly further fleshed out now?
• What should we do:
– If K-12 guidelines really were achieved?
– For students getting 4 or 5 on AP Stat Exam?
• What about a multi-week unit in some course focusing on the relationships between statistics, mathematics, and computer science: how they’ve changed over time, and how they’ve affected all three disciplines?
Terminology: statistics, data analysis, quantitative literacy, …
For introductory college level:
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• What are the audiences and how to influence them?
– ASA members who teach intro college
– K-12 teachers
– K-12 administrators
– Non-ASA members who teach intro college
– College math education professors …
• Have a good executive summary, 4-5 pages max, and test it on the desired audiences
• Approval process through ASA and other associations
• Use ASA and other websites.
– Advertising?
Dissemination