Transcript Comments on Draft Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in

Comments on Draft Guidelines
for Assessment and Instruction in
Statistics Education (GAISE)
Jim Landwehr
Avaya Labs
August 10, 2004
Copyright© 2004 Avaya Inc. All rights reserved
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.
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Some related comments on topics not (yet?)
addressed in the Guidelines
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?
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For introductory college level:
• 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, …
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Dissemination
• 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?
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