This paper is from Session 1E: Assessment: its lessons and effects
which comes under Topic 1: Statistics education: Looking back, looking forward
Paper 1E2 (Friday 13th, 14:00-15:30)
Real-world contexts in statistics components of UK mathematics examinations: aiming forward, walking backwards
Presenter
- James Nicholson (University of Durham, United Kingdom)
Co-author
- Jim Ridgway (Durham University, United Kingdom)
Abstract
Reasoning with data is pervasive in society; evidence-based policy requires reasoning about complex data; many statistics curricula do not equip students to understand such reasoning. A new mathematics curriculum for upper secondary school (pre-university) students has been taught in England from September 2017, which includes assessment based on large-scale, pre-released data. Here, we critique the specimen examination papers, identifying inappropriate uses of statistics, and a failure to understand the rationale for working with large scale, authentic, data sets. We offer an account of how this poor state of affairs has come about.