This paper is from Session 4F: Opening up the data world wider and faster

which comes under Topic 4: Statistics education at the post-secondary level

Open data, civil society and monitoring progress: challenges for statistics education

Presenter

• Joachim Engel (Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany)

Abstract

The paper discusses the role of statistical knowledge for active participation in democratic processes. It is based on the assumptions that knowledge and skills to reason adequately with data are an important prerequisite for the functioning of democracy in our mass societies. While open data nowadays are easily accessible through National Statistics Organizations, UN offices and NGOs like Gapminder etc., statistics educators face the challenge to teach quantitative skills needed to understand and interpret these data. Drawing information from very big multivariate data sets may involve statistical principles different from dealing with small samples. Besides strengthening the civil society, integrating issues of monitoring social progress lets students experience that statistical analyses play a role in understanding the pressing social and political issues of our time.