Traditional curricula in the social sciences result in students having statistical knowledge that is inert and consequently of low transferability. This is in part because these curricula separate mathematical and probabilistic content (present in statistics service courses) from the context in which the collection of observational and experimental data is designed (present in courses about research methods). This paper proposes a curriculum that removes this separation by merging the two domains into the research competency, in line with emergent pedagogical insights. This study describes the new curriculum and compares some preliminary learning outcomes of students following the proposed integrated competency-based curriculum with that of students following the traditional curriculum. The results suggest a higher level of understanding is achieved through the integrated approach.

Carnegie Mellon University was funded to develop a “stand-alone ” web-based introductory statistics course, openly and freely available to individual learners online. The goal of this project is to develop statistical literacy among people who do not have access to academic institutions because of remote locations, financial difficulties or social barriers. In order to achieve this goal, the design of the course has been a collaboration among statistics faculty, cognitive scientists and experts in human computer interaction. This paper discusses the challenges in developing such a learning environment and ways in which the course tries to address them. We also describe the design and results of a pilot study where the degree to which the course is successful in developing statistical literacy has been examined.

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In the past few years statistics educators have emphasised the importance of statistical literacy in the statistics education reform movement. Many educational researchers argue that the topic of statistical literacy should be part of an introductory statistics course syllabus. This article gives an overview of useful techniques for developing a reform-based statistics course, underlining the place of statistical literacy in this framework. Summarised recommendations incorporate many innovations employed in a variety of successful statistics classes today. We suggest that introductory statistics courses, and in particular the statistical literacy component, will benefit from additional curricular material aimed at encouraging students to become informed and critically thinking consumers of statistical information, thereby promoting motivation to learn statistics. The directions and approaches to developing such curriculum material are discussed.

Instructors of statistics who teach non-statistics majors possess varied academic backgrounds, and hence it is reasonable to expect variability in their subject content knowledge, and pedagogical approach. The aim of this study was to determine the specific course(s) that contributed mostly to instructors ' understanding and use of statistics, as a first step toward understanding their cognitive style and pedagogical approach. An exploratory mini email survey was conducted via ALLSTAT and SRMSNET listservs. Courses reported were described as advanced or graduate level only, and classified as application-based, math, multivariate, probability, and research. The majority of the respondents 9 (56%) attributed their understanding of statistics to either an application-based or research course, and of those, 7 (44%) reported negative feelings about their introductory/first statistics courses. Notwithstanding the methodological limitations of this small study, these findings are plausible, and underscore the importance of discipline-specific applications (authentic activities), and constructivist pedagogy toward facilitating statistical thinking and literacy. Large-scale research is needed to determine the effect of instructors ' academic training and professional preparation on their knowledge, conceptions, attitudes, and pedagogical practices in the context of teaching statistics, in particular, introductory courses.

may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the author and advance notification of the editor. Key Words: collaboration, cooperative learning, collaborative teaching, statistics education This paper provides practical examples of how statistics educators may apply a cooperative framework to classroom teaching and teacher collaboration. Building on the premise that statistics instruction ought to resemble statistical practice, an inherently cooperative enterprise, our purpose is to highlight specific ways in which cooperative methods may translate to statistics education. So doing, we hope to address the concerns of those statistics educators who are reluctant to adopt more student-centered teaching strategies, as well as those educators who have tried these methods but ultimately returned to more traditional, teacher-centered instruction. 1. Collaboration in Learning and Teaching Statistics This paper builds on the premise that statistics instruction ought to resemble statistical practice, an inherently cooperative enterprise. Statisticians typically need to work on teams and communicate effectively with their collaborators, who may have little or no background in statistics. Today, nearly all

Instructors of statistics who teach non-statistics majors possess varied academic backgrounds, and hence it is reasonable to expect variability in their content knowledge, and pedagogical approach. The aim of this study was to determine the specific course(s) that contributed mostly to instructors ' understanding of statistics. Courses reported were described as advanced or graduate level, and classified as application-based, math, multivariate, probability, and research. The majority, 9 (56%) attributed their understanding of statistics to either an application-based or research course, and of those, 7 (44%) reported negative feelings about their introductory courses. These findings underscore the importance of authentic activities, and constructivist pedagogy toward facilitating statistical literacy. Research is needed to determine the effect of instructors ' academic preparation on their knowledge, attitudes, and practices.

In this paper, we present a brief history of our efforts to incorporate civic learning into our statistics curriculum, highlighting our most recent approach, media reports. We discuss implementation issues, educational objectives, and give examples of student projects. Learning objectives, expected outcomes, and our assessment process are also given. An important aspect of this effort is the use of technology in report generation and dissemination. We discuss the development of these tools and how they have been used. We conclude with remarks on sustainability and possible future directions.

Modern teaching methods require students to be active participants in the learning process. Assigning projects to students sets a frame which cultivates the interactivity between the instructor and the students and motivates the students to explore the field. The objective of this paper is to present the results from the use of individual directed projects in the introductory statistics course at the Department of Political Sciences of Aristotle, University of Thessaloniki. We compare this group with another group of students who were taught the introductory statistics course with conventional methods. The results indicate that students in the project-based group grasped statistical concepts and ideas at a higher rate than students in the control group, had a better attitude towards statistics, and did not think that statistics is as hard to learn as students in the other group.

A randomized trial of 265 consenting students was conducted within an introductory biostatistics course: 69 received eight small group cooperative learning sessions; 97 accessed internet learning sessions; 96 received no intervention. Effect on examination score (95 % CI) was assessed by intent-to-treat analysis and by incorporating reported participation. No difference was found by intent-to-treat analysis. After incorporating reported participation, adjusted average improvement was 1.7 points (-1.8, 5.2) per cooperative session and 2.1 points (-1.4, 5.5) per internet session after one examination. After four examinations, adjusted average improvement for four study sessions was 5.3 points (0.4, 10.3) per examination for cooperative learning and 8.1 points (3.0, 13.2) for internet learning. Consistent participation in active learning may improve understanding beyond the traditional classroom.