Teaching and Learning of Statistics : International Perspectives

This book presents the breadth and diversity of empirical and practical work done on statistics education around the world. A wide range of methods are used to respond to the research questions that form it's base. Case studies of single students or teachers aimed at understanding reasoning processes, large-scale experimental studies attempting to generalize trends in the teaching and learning of statistics are both employed. Various epistemological stances are described and utilized.

The teaching and learning of statistics is presented in multiple contexts in the book. These include designed settings for young children, students in formal schooling, tertiary level students, vocational schools, and teacher professional development. A diversity is evident also in the choices of what to teach (curriculum), when to teach (learning trajectory), how to teach (pedagogy), how to demonstrate evidence of learning (assessment) and what challenges teachers and students face when theysolve statistical problems (reasoning and thinking).

Dani Ben-Zvi is an associate professor at the University of Haifa in the Faculty of Education, member of the Technology in Education Graduate Department, and member of the Mathematics Education Graduate Department. He is also the co-founder of the International Collaboration for Research on Statistical Reasoning, Thinking and Literacy, and co-chairs it with his co-editor, Katie Makar. His research interests include statistical reasoning and technology enhanced learning. He received his Ph.D. from the Weizmann Institute of Science in 2001 at the Department of Science Teaching. Dr Katie Makar is a senior lecturer in mathematics education at the University of Queensland. Her research looks at teaching of mathematics through inquiry. She is also known internationally for her work on statistical reasoning and informal statistical inference at the primary school level. She has done consulting work on teaching with inquiry, reasoning in chance and data, teacher professional standards and middle years curriculum. Her teaching includes courses in mathematics education, interdisciplinary curriculum, teacher professionalism, and statistics. Previously, she taught secondary mathematics for fifteen years in the US and Asia before finishing her PhD in 2004.