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"Statistical literacy is the ability to
read and interpret summary statistics in the everyday media: in graphs,
tables, statements, surveys and studies. Statistical literacy is
needed by data consumers – students in non-quantitative majors: majors with
no quantitative requirement such as political science, history, English,
primary education, communications, music, art and philosophy. About 40% of
all US college students graduating in 2003 had non-quantitative majors."
By Milo Schield in "Assessing Statistical Literacy: Take CARE" Ch 11 in
Assessment Methods in Statistical Education, pp. 133-152.
Wiley 2010
STATLIT NEWS |
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Yearly highlights of grants, new books, conference papers (ICOTS, ISI,
JSM, JMM), and events involving statistical literacy, numeracy and
quantitative literacy. |
UPCOMING EVENTS |
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Oct 8-10:
PKAL/Carleton College "Quantifying
Quantitative Reasoning in Undergraduate Education: Alternative
Strategies for the Assessment of Quantitative Reasoning"
Program development workshop October 8-10,
2010, Northfield, MN--INSTITUTIONAL APPLICATIONS DUE August 6, 2010.
The AAC&U's Liberal
Education and America's Promise (LEAP) initiative identifies
quantitative reasoning (QR) among 11 critical learning outcomes for
all students in the 21st century. Sharing this perspective, many
institutions have recently adopted QR graduation requirements. Led
by leaders in the national QR movement, this interactive workshop
will lead campus teams in developing plans to enhance QR programming
and assessment. Friday: 3:40-5:00 Plenary Session: "Quantitative
Reasoning On Campus and Beyond" "Quantitative Reasoning Today" Milo
Schield (Augsburg College). "Quantitative Reasoning: Some
Evidence and Questions on Learning" Shannon Dingman and Bernie
Madison (University of Arkansas. 6:30-8:15 Dinner Plenary
Session: "Many Women Work, Wealthy People Have More Money, and Other
Important Things I've Learned from Reading Student Papers" Nathan
Grawe (Carleton College). Saturday: 11:45-1:00 Lunch
Plenary Session: "Challenges of QR Assessment" Donna Sundre (James
Madison University). Sunday 11:30-12:00 Lunch and Plenary Session:
"Building a QR Community: The Future of the National Numeracy
Network" Corrine Taylor (Wellesley College) and Len Vacher (Univ.
of Southern Florida).
Agenda
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Oct 20:
First World
Statistics Day 20.10.2010
Resolution.
Sponsored by the United Nations. -
Dec 10-11.
OZCOTS:
Australian Conference on Teaching Statistics to be held
in Fremantle, Western Australia.
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2011: Jan 6 - 9. Joint Mathematical Meeting,
MAA-AMS
New Orleans -
2011: July 30 - Aug 4.
Joint Statistical
Meeting of the American Statistical Association (Miami, FL). -
2011: August 21-26.
58th World Statistics Conference,
International Statistical Institute (ISI). Dublin
Invited Sessions
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2011: September 10-16.
Conference of The Mathematics Education into the 21st Century
Project.
Turning Dreams into
Reality: Transformations and Paradigm Shifts in Mathematics
Education. South Africa.
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2010 PAST EVENTS |
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"USDA's National Agricultural
Statistics Service and the National FFA Organization have developed
a new series of K- 12 online learning tools and outreach kits to
increase statistical literacy in the classroom through the
exploration and use of data from the 2007 Census of Agriculture. To
access the materials for free, visit the
FFA Learn web site."
Lesson Plans
Aug 5-7:
MathFest 2010.
Pittsburg, PA.
Quantitative Reasoning/Literacy: The Role of
Quantitative and Covariational Reasoning in Trigonometry Curriculum
by Kevin Moore; Quantitative Reasoning by Darcel Strayer;
Current Events Friday by
Kira Hamman 6up. Minicourse: A Game Theory Path to
Quantitative Literacy by David Housman and Rick Gillman.
Statistical literacy: Popular Media and Introductory Statistics
by Karen Briggs 6up. Analyzing Real Biomedical Data Using
Scientific Writing and TI Calculators by
Magdalena Luca.
SIGMAA QL Panel Discussion: Mathematics in Interdisciplinary
Survey Courses. Organizers: Cinnamon Hillyard and
Stuart Boersma. Panelists: Maura Mast, Mike
Pinter, Robert Root, Natasha Dobrinen and Susan Goldstine.
Others:
Benford's Law, a Growth Industry by Kenneth Ross.
Zipf's Distribution in "Gadsby" by Ze Cheng.
An Examination of Student Attitudes in a Business Statistics Course
by Deborah Gougeon.
Abstracts
August:
Statistics
for All — the Flip Side of Quantitative Reasoning by J.
Michael Shaughnessy, NCTM President.
"Over the years ... I’ve been increasingly impressed by how
important statistical literacy has become for all of us around the
globe. And statistics will only continue to become more critical in
the future. Statistical literacy has risen to the top of my advocacy
list, right alongside numeracy, and perhaps even ahead of “algebra
for all.” By statistical literacy, I mean much more than just the
ability to read graphs or compute means as representatives for data
sets. I mean developing the ability to reason in the presence of, or
under conditions of uncertainty. It may be that the most important
quantitative reasoning ability of all is the facility to read and
interpret statistical information and make informed inferences based
on statistical and probabilistic information." "Mathematical
arguments are based on proof and certainty. There is beauty—and
perhaps even comfort—in convincing mathematical arguments such as
the proof that demonstrates that the amazing Pythagorean
relationship holds among the sides of every right triangle, or that
for any circle the ratio of the circumference to the diameter is
equal to the same number, every time, no matter the size of the
circle. This is beautiful stuff, and we clearly want all our
students to understand and to bask in these elegant mathematical
truths. However, unlike the reasoning behind this mathematics,
statistical reasoning and sense making, by their very nature, occur
under conditions of uncertainty. The twin sister of the “certainty”
in mathematics is the “uncertainty” in statistics. We must prepare
our students to deal with both types of quantitative reasoning as
they grow in the mathematical sciences."
July 31 - Aug 5.
Joint
Statistical Meeting of the American Statistical Association
(Vancouver, BC).
Program
Sunday Topics in causal inference:
Design of an Observational Study ... by Donald Rubin, Stephanie
Schrag and Elizabeth Zel.
Monday Session Statistical Literacy 2010:
Statistical Literacy: A Short Course by Gerald Hahn, Necip
Doganaksoy, Ricki Lewis, Jane Oppenlander and Josef Schmee
6up;
Statistical Literacy and Time-series Information by Anders
and Britt Wallgren 6up;
The Undetectable Difference: An Experimental Look at the
“Problem” of p-Values by Bill Goodman
6up; Probability in Decline
by Dean Brooks 6up; and Teaching Statistical Literacy as a
Quantitative Rhetoric Course by John Schmit
6up.
Monday Learning to Fly without a Net: Inferring
Legal Causation by Herbert Weisberg. Roundtable:
Readings for Intro Stat Courses Organizer Veda Abu-Bakare.
Rethinking Statistics Courses - What to Let Go of? Panel:
Deborah Rumsey, Allan Rossman, Beth Chance, Jessica Utts
Tuesday Framing Specific Hypotheses: What's the
Alternative? by Daniel Kaplan.
Interpreting Variability in Various Types of Graphs: How do
Teachers' Recognize/Understand Variability?
Linda Cooper. Roundtable Statistical Literacy as a Separate Course from Introductory
Statistics by Robert Molnar.
Wednesday The Role of
Statistics in Science and Everyday Life: A First Year Seminar by
Jessica Chapman 1up.
Moving towards a QL core competency requirement by A. John
Bailer 6up. Assessment of QR Across a General
Education Curriculum by Stephanie Cano, Nandini Kannan and
Ermine Orta 1up. The Social Construction of Rankings
by Milo Schield. 6up
QIS in Teaching an Elementary Class in Statistical Literacy to
Nursing Majors by Robert Dean Curley. Session: Understanding
Students' Attitudes.
The Hidden Attitude: Students' Perceptions of "Statistics" Prior
to Taking the First Course by Marjorie Bond and Gloria Lehr
6up.
Assessing Changes in Students' Attitudes: the good, the bad, and
the ugly by Anne Millar and Candace Schau. Session
(509). Adjusting for Treatment Disparities in Observational
Research by Marshall Joffe. Roundtable: The Basics of the Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics
Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education: Candace Schau.
July
Join the ASA Statistical Literacy Grassroots Campaign:
"The American Statistical Association requests your participation in
our statistical literacy grassroots campaign.
With preparation underway for the reauthorization of the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (No Child Left Behind), this
is a wonderful opportunity to educate our elected leaders about
statistical literacy, its benefits and the challenges toward
achieving it."
"If you
are going to be at JSM, you are also invited to be part of a
training session at 5 pm on Wednesday, August 4 in Convention Centre
Meeting Room 9 (CC-9)." "We recognize that statistical literacy
is a vital component of mathematics education."
Resources: (1) "For
Today's Graduate, Just One Word: Statistics," New York Times,
August 5, 2009, front page. (2)
Promoting
Statistical Literacy one-pager.
July
International Conference
on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS-8 Ljubljana, Slovenia).
Keynote
videos. {Selected papers}
Plenary 1 Hans Rosling
-
What showbiz has to do
with it. Check out
Gapminder. See a
video of Hans in action.
Plenary 2 Jessica Utts -
The strength of evidence
versus the power of belief: Are we all Bayesians.
Plenary 3 Gerd Gigerenzer -
Helping doctors
and patients make sense of health statistics: towards an
evidence-based society
Session 1G Ograjenšek - Lies, damn lies, statistics:
1G1 The compleat applied
statistician: Donald Bentley (US).
1G2 Unintentional lies in the
media: don’t blame journalists for what we don’t teach: Jessica
Utts (US).
Session 4D Forester - Innovations in Teaching Statistics:
4D1 Real-Life Module
Statistics Xiao-Li Meng (US).
4D3 Enriching Statistics
courses with Statistical Diversions Eric Sowey and Peter
Petrocz (Australia)
Session 5E Utts - Assessing
statistical literacy:
5E1 Assessing the
interpretation of two-way tables as part of statistical literacy:
Jane Watson, Erica Nathan (Australia).
5E3 Post secondary and adult
statistical literacy: assessing beyond the classroom: Jennifer
Kaplan (US)
Session 7A Murphy - Statistics and the media:
7A1 Association-Causation Problems in
News Stories: Milo Schield
(US) 6up.
7A2 Spinning
heads and spinning news: the American media’s gap in quantitative
reasoning skills: Rebecca Goldin (US).
7A3 Statistics on national
radio: some insights from working with professional broadcasters:
Kevin McConway (UK).
Session 7G Schield - Statistics
for non-quantitative majors:
7G1
Using media reports to
promote statistical literacy for non-quantitative majors
by
Stephanie Budgett, Maxine Pfannkuch (NZ).
7G2 Luring non-quantitative
majors into advanced statistical reasoning (and luring statistics
educators into real statistics): Nicholson et al.
7G3 Using a Five Step
Framework for interpreting tables and graphs in their contexts:
Marian Kemp and Barry Kissane (Australia).
7G4 How we can all learn to
think critically about data: Ian Gordon, Sue Finch (Australia).
9A3 People Reasoning with
Information and Mis-Information Jim Ridgway et al. (UK)
5D1 Statistics assessment
the good, the bad, and the ugly James Nicholson et al.
(UK)
8J4: Understanding, teaching
and using p values Geoff Cumming (Australia)
Special Interest
Group: Critical Numeracy --
Statistical literacy:
Critical Numeracy by Jane Watson (AU)
Statistical Literacy 2010: An
Update by Milo Schield
(US).
ISLP International Statistical Literacy Project.
7H2 Improving
Statistical Literacy by National and International Cooperation Helenius (Finland)
Contributed Papers:
C101 Dichotomous
thinking: a problem beyond NHST: Jerry Lai (AU).
C104 Identifying
misconceptions about confidence intervals: Pawel Kalinowski
(Australia).
C143 The
confidence intervals: a difficult matter, even for experts:
Gabriel Yáñez Canal (Colombia).
C153 Developmental changes in Australian school students’ interest for
statistical literacy: Colin Carmichael and Ian Hay (Australia).
C156 The American
Psychological Association Publication Manual sixth edition:
implications for statistics education: Fiona Fidler (Australia).
C158 Teachers’
perceptions of best practice in statistical literacy education:
Ian Hay (Australia).
C159 Aspects of
statistical literacy ...: empirical research in the project “RIKO-STAT”:
Kuntze, Engel, Martignon andn Gundlach (Germany).
C165
Creating YouTube videos that engage students and enhance learning in
statistics and Excel Nicola Petty (NZ)
C166 Interpreting
literacy and numeracy testing reports: what do teachers need to
know? Robyn Pierce and Helen Chick (Australia).
C193 Teaching
strategies to promote statistical literacy: review and
implementation: Svetlana Tishkovskaya (UK).
C202 Hidden jargon:
everyday words with meanings specific to statistics
Christine Anderson-Cook (US).
C206 Enhancing
statistical literacy through short open-ended questions that involve
context, data, & upper level thinking: Esfandiari et al
C258 Ethical-political
aspects of statistical literacy: Karen François (Belgium).
C265 Is median an easy
concept? Semiotic analysis of an open-ended task Silvia Mayén
(Mexico) and Carmen Díaz (Spain).
June. 2010-11 ISLP Statistical Literacy Poster Competition.
Form and Phases.
ISLP Personnel: Executive, Advisory Board and Country representatives.
ICOTS
(July 12): ISLP open-meeting agenda
June. U. of Edinburgh PhD Studentship
Re-defining statistical literacy in teaching statistics to
undergraduate medical students.
May 15.
Assessment Methods in Statistical
Education: An International
Comparison.
Wiley (pb, $82).
Edited by P. Bidgood, N. Hunt and F.
Jolliffe. Part B on Assessing Statistical Literacy includes Ch
6: Assessing statistical thinking by Jolliffe; Ch 7: Assessing important learning outcomes in introductory tertiary
statistics courses by Garfield, delMas and Zieffler; Ch 9. Assessing students’ statistical literacy by Budgett and
Pfannkuch; Ch 11 Assessing statistical literacy: Take CARE
by Schield:
Excerpts.
May
Letters from ASA Presidents to NC Senators asking for their help to
promote statistical literacy
"Statistical literacy ... is important
because of our society’s growing dependence on data and the
accompanying importance of reasoning under uncertainty. Media
sources confront us with statistical information on topics such as
the economy, education, food, medicine, climate change, security,
public opinion, entertainment, and social behavior. Statistical
literacy skills—including data analysis strategies, critical
thinking, and other related concepts— help guide our decisions and
enable us to meet our responsibilities as citizens." "We would
welcome a discussion with you or your staff about how we can work
together to promote statistical literacy... Excellence in
mathematics education that includes statistical literacy is vital to
our nation’s economic prosperity, global competitiveness, and
homeland security in the 21st century." Signed by four ASA
Presidents: James O. Berger, Alan F. Karr, Sally C. Morton, and
Sastry G. Pantula .
Attached document:
Statistical Literacy in PreK-12 Education.
May:
Interpreting Economic and Social Data: A Foundation of Descriptive
Statistics (2009) A
masterfully compelling argument on why statistical analysis in the
social sciences is essentially different from that in the physical
sciences. Winkler notes that many -- if not most -- of our
statistical ideas originated in the physical sciences where such
ideas as a fixed population parameter and a fixed relationship
between variables was often the norm and deviations are aptly
treated as error. But such ideas do not fit well in the social
sciences where the human condition seldom involves fixed population
parameters and more often than not lacks any fixed relationship
between variables. This book goes to the core of statistical
thinking. If you teach the use of statistics in a social
context, you should read this book and understand this argument.
April: New data visualization tool from Tableau Public at
www.tableausoftware.com.
Not only does it facilitate the display of any
user's data, it allows one to see the relationship between two
variables in a geographic layout. See the US Under-Funded Public
Pension map by state where the size of the circle indicates the
amount under-funded and the color indicates the under-funding rate:
www.tableausoftware.com/public/gallery/mish-pension-viz
March:
Odds Are, It's Wrong: Science fails to face the shortcomings of
statistics by Tom Sigfried in
Science News.
March:
Delving Deeper: Sizing Up Class Size: A Deeper Classroom
Investigation of Central Tendency
By Larry Lesser -- published in
The Mathematics
Teacher. An investigation of average class size
introduces the difference between mean- per-class and
mean-per-student. Learn about self-weighted means and the inspection
paradox. Dec. 2009, Vol 103, Issue 5, Page 376.
Feb 5:
Confounded -- a poem by Larry Lesser -- published in
The Mathematical Intelligencer by Springer.
According to Larry, "the 'Peterson roll' is a common way a
wrestler scores a 'reversal' to go from bottom to top in one move."
Jan 31: LA Times Opinion on the need for Quantitative Literacy:
But Who's Counting? by Doug
Smith
Quotes from Lynn Steen and Milo Schield.
Jan 13-16,
2010. MAA-AMS Joint Mathematics Meeting, San Francisco.
SIGMAA-QL 2009 Survey:
Quantitative
Graduation Requirements at US Four-Year Colleges by Milo Schield
6up
An
Across-The-Curriculum Approach to Quantitative Literacy in
Environmental Studies, Ben Steele et al. Colby-Sawyer College.
6up
Modeling Radon in Pennsylvania by Mike Huber, Muhlenberg
College 6up
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FEATURED AUTHORS |
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GIGERENZER
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RECOMMENDED INTRO BOOKS |
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Victor Cohn (1989),
News and Numbers
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Darrell Huff
(1954),
How To Lie with Statistics
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Jane Miller (2004),
The Chicago Guide to Writing About Numbers
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Edward Tufte (1995),
Visual Explanations
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TOPICS |
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Articles
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S/L Books
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Q/L Texts
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RECOMMENDED ARTICLES |
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Ten web-accessible articles
presenting a general background or overview:
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Ten web-accessible articles related to the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy Project:
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08/29/10
