Statistical literacy and the role of communication
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.52041/iase2023.306Abstract
Communication is vital in the practice of statistics, and accordingly, curriculum documents often call for clear and concise communication with respect to statistical content. However, little attention has been given to developing the skills necessary for effectively using written communication to tell the story in a set of data. Too often students bring a mathematical approach to the writing, using statistical summaries without explaining how these connect to the context. Just as students need to learn what is important in communicating with a visual display, they also need guidelines in learning to communicate using words and numbers. This paper addresses the questions: what are characteristics of a good statistical story, and what are strategies to help learners develop skills to communicate the results of a statistical analysis in language accessible to an audience unfamiliar with statistics. The work is based on a research project involving prospective elementary teachers.References
Abelson, R. (1995). Statistics as principled argument. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Bargagliotti, A., Franklin, C., Arnold, P., Gould, R., Johnson, S., Perez, L., & Spangler, D. (2020). Pre- K-12 guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education II (GAISE II). American Statistical Association and National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Alexandria, VA and Reston, VA. https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/edu-set.pdf
Block, N. (2020). Evaluating the efficacy of using sentence frames for learning new vocabulary in science. Journal for Research in Science Teaching, 57(3), 454-478. https://doi.org/10.1002/tea.21602
Brazilian Ministry of Education. National curriculum parameters. Secondary education. http://portal.mec.gov.br/seb/arquivos/pdf/pcning.pdf
Franklin, C., Kadar, G., Mewborn, D., Moreno, J., Peck, R., Perry, M., & Scheaffer, R. (2007). The difference between mathematics and statistics, pp.6-9. Guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education (GAISE) report: A Pre-K–12 curriculum rramework. https://www.amstat.org/docs/default-source/amstat-documents/gaiseprek-12_full.pdf
GAISE College Report ASA Revision Committee. (2016). Guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education college report. http://www.amstat.org/education/gaise.
Garfield, J., &Gal, I. (1999), Assessment and statistics education: Current challenges and directions. International Statistical Review, 67, 1–12.
Khachatryan, D., & Karst, N. (2017). V for voice: Strategies for bolstering communication skills in statistics. Journal of Statistics Education, 25(2), 68-78, DOI:10.1080/10691898.2017.1305261
Kwok, R. (2013). Communication: Two minutes to impress. Nature, 494, 137–138.
Lazar, J., Feng, J., & Hochheiser, H. (2017). Analyzing qualitative data. In J. Lazar, J. Feng, H. Hochheiser. (Eds.). Research methods in human computer interaction (2nd edition), Morgan Kaufman, (pp. 299-327). https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-805390-4.00011-X.
Liljedahl, P. (2020). Building thinking classrooms in mathematics, grades K-12. Corwin.
Lowe, K. (8/1/2016). Communicating statistics to nonstatisticians. Stattrak. American Statistical Association. https://stattrak.amstat.org/2016/08/01/nonstatisticians/
Mayring, P. (2014). Qualitative content analysis: Theoretical foundation, basic procedures and software solution. http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-395173
New Zealand Ministry of Education (2014). The New Zealand curriculum: mathematics and statistics. https://nzcurriculum.tki.org.nz/The-New-Zealand-Curriculum/Mathematics-and- statistics/Achievement-objectives
Parke, C. (2008). Reasoning and communicating in the language of statistics. Journal of Statistics Education, 16(1).https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2008.11889555
Rossman, A., & Chance, B. How is statistics different from mathematics, and why should teachers care? http://www.rossmanchance.com/iscam/InspireStatMath.ppt
Rumsey, D. (2002), Statistical literacy as a goal for introductory statistics courses.Journal of Statistics Education, 10, 6–13.
Scheaffer, R. (2006). Statistics and mathematics: On making a happy marriage. In G. Burrill (Ed.). Thinking and reasoning with data and chance, 68th NCTM Yearbook, (pp. 309–321). Reston, VA: National Council of Teachers of Mathematics.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research techniques. Sage Publications.
Highlighting Mistakes: A Grading Strategy. (n.d.). Teaching Channel. https://learn.teachingchannel.com/video/math-test-grading-tips
Tufte, E. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information (2nd ed.) Cheshire CT: Graphics Press.
Strauss, A., & Corbin, J. (1998). Basics of qualitative research techniques. Sage Publications.
Unwin, A. (2020). What is important in data visualization? Harvard Data Science Review, 2(1). https://doi.org/10.1162/99608f92.8ae4d525
Wiliam, D. (1999). Formative assessment in mathematics, Part 2: Feedback. Equals: Mathematics and Special Educational Needs 5(3), 8-11.
Woodard, V., Lee, H., & Woodard, R. (2020), Writing assignments to assess statistical thinking. Journal of Statistics Education, 28, 32–44. DOI: 10.1080/10691898.2019.1696257.
