This study builds on previous studies that have examined guided project-based learning in undergraduate statistics courses to examine students' attitudes toward statistics after participating in a graduate-level statistics course that used guided project-based learning as an andragogical technique. This phenomenological qualitative case study…

Statistical investigations, a thread within the statistics strand of the mathematics and statistics learning area (Ministry of Education, 2007), are underpinned by the statistical enquiry cycle. As teachers introduce their students to the statistical enquiry cycle, they are supporting their students to become data detectives, posing and answering…

This article reviews a flexible model for engaging students in statistical enquiry. Data from a student survey are first used to stimulate interest and introduce statistical concepts, while easing the transition to working with larger "real world" secondary data.

On average, Florida students earn only half of the points possible in the statistics content area of the state's annual mathematics assessment. Leaders in Broward County Public Schools, a large, diverse, urban school district, viewed changes to statistics curriculum and instruction as one way to address this issue. This study randomly assigned 40…

Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) has identified low student achievement in statistics in the middle grades as a critical concern. It has also expressed concern that statistics instruction does not meet the level of cognitive complexity described in the state curriculum standards. This randomized controlled trial in 40 BCPS middle schools…

We adapted a multidisciplinary, project-based curriculum to introduce high school students to statistical inquiry. We examined student background characteristics, learning experiences, and course outcomes for 30 students aged 12 to 14 entering ninth grade who were involved in a 1-week, accelerated version of a Passion-Driven Statistics curriculum.…

These are the appendixes for the report "Effects of an Inquiry-Oriented Curriculum and Professional Development Program on Grade 7 Students' Understanding of Statistics and on Statistics Instruction." This cluster-randomized controlled trial compared the Supporting Teacher Enactment of the Probability and Statistics Standards (STEPSS)…

Inquiry-based pedagogies have a strong presence in proof-based undergraduate mathematics courses, but can be difficult to implement in courses that are large, procedural, or highly computational. An introductory course in statistics would thus seem an unlikely candidate for an inquiry-based approach, as these courses typically steer well clear of…

Opening Real Science (ORS) is a three-year government initiative developed as part of the Mathematics and Science Teachers program. It is a collaboration across universities involving teacher educators, scientists, mathematicians, statisticians and educational designers aimed at improving primary and secondary pre-service teachers' competence and…

This article offers a description of how empirical experiences through the use of procedural knowledge can serve as the stage for the development of hypothetical concepts using the learning cycle, an inquiry teaching and learning method with a long history in science education. The learning cycle brings a unique epistemology by way of using…

There is continuing concern about the paucity of social science graduates who have the quantitative skills required by academia and industry. Not only do students often lack the confidence to explore, and use, statistical techniques, the dominance of qualitative research in many disciplines has also often constrained programme-level integration of…

Statistics courses that focus on data analysis in isolation, discounting the scientific inquiry process, may not motivate students to learn the subject. By involving students in other steps of the inquiry process, such as generating hypotheses and data, students may become more interested and vested in the analysis step. Additionally, such an…

Introductory statistics needs innovative, evidence-based teaching practices that support and engage diverse students. To evaluate the success of a multidisciplinary, project-based course, we compared experiences of under-represented (URM) and non-underrepresented students in 4 years of the course. While URM students considered the material more…

How can science instructors prepare students for the statistics needed in authentic inquiry labs? We designed and assessed four instructional modules with the goals of increasing student confidence, appreciation, and performance in both experimental design and data analysis. Using extensions from a just-in-time teaching approach, we introduced…

The first day of a course has great potential to set the tone for the entire course, planting the seeds for habits of mind and questioning and setting in motion expectations for classroom discourse. Rather than let the first meeting contain little besides going over the syllabus, the instructor (Lesser) decided to use two sustained open-ended…