This paper is from Session 9A: New paradigms in teaching statistics through technology

which comes under Topic 9: Technology in statistics education

Other papers under session 9A ... 9A1: Learning to apply statistics using a virtual environment 9A2: Learning from the statistician’s lab notebook

(Monday 12th, 11:00-12:30)

Pupils reasoning with information and misinformation

Presenter

• Jim Ridgway (University of Durham, United Kingdom)

Co-author

• James Nicholson (University of Durham, United Kingdom)

Abstract

Real-world problems are complex; the ability to engage with such problems should be an educational goal. We know little about the effects of exposure to information, or about the cycle of revising personal stories, beliefs and theories, in the light of information and misinformation (IAM). A second emerging educational goal is the ability to reason with IAM. We are working with mash-ups comprising interactive multivariate displays of survey data, and newspaper articles on a particular theme (e.g. smoking, alcohol abuse). We report on the ‘natural’ statistical skills that pupils display when engaging with the media linked to relevant complex data, and show that some ‘big statistical ideas’ – such as interaction, and effect size – can be acquired by young students. We argue that the statistics curriculum should be reformed to include qualitative descriptions of large scale multivariate data sets, and to include the critique of rival accounts.

Other papers under session 9A ... 9A1: Learning to apply statistics using a virtual environment 9A2: Learning from the statistician’s lab notebook