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Program Outline

The workshop will involve two days of intensive research meetings, in large and break-out groups. Research questions will be articulated, the literature will be surveyed, and progress will be made planning timelines and study designs for research projects to address these questions. Participants will read several papers before their arrival in preparation for the discussions, including seminal papers in statistics education as well as more recent papers in the participants’ particular areas of interest.

Participants will be mentored by Dr. Andrew Zieffler, an internationally recognized leader in statistics education research.  Dr. Zieffler is a Senior Lecturer and researcher in the Quantitative Methods in Education program within the Department of Educational Psychology at the University of Minnesota. In a previous life he taught mathematics and A.P. Statistics at the high-school level. He currently teaches graduate-level courses in statistics, oversees the undergraduate statistics program, trains and supervises graduate students who teach statistics. Dr. Zieffler has participated as a co-PI on many past and current NSF-funded statistics education research projects, including the Change Agents for Teaching and Learning Statistics (CATALST) project. He is the author of several papers and book chapters related to statistics education, and has co-authored two textbooks that serve as an introduction to modern statistical and computational methods for students in the educational and behavioral sciences. He also serves as a co-editor of the journal Technology Innovations in Statistics Education and as a member of the Consortium for the Advancement of Undergraduate Statistics Education (CAUSE) Research Advisory Board. In 2014, Dr. Zieffler was the recipient of the ASA Waller Education Award for his innovative teaching of introductory statistics and contributions to statistics education.

Participants will all be encouraged to watch the video of Dr. Zieffler’s  talk at the July, 2015 Advancing Innovation and Scholarship in Statistics Education in Canada workshop entitled “Statistics Education: Is an Evidence-Based Discipline Based on Evidence?” (available at http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/programs/scientific/15-16/statistics_ed/) in advance of the workshop.

The workshop will open with a public lecture by Dr. Zieffler:

Public lecture details

Dr. Andrew Zieffler, University of Minnesota
Friday, March 11, 2016
9 am - 10 am
James Stewart Library, Fields Institute
222 College St., Toronto ON

http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/aboutus/directions.html

Abstract

Putting the CART before the Horse: Introducing Advanced Methodologies in Introductory Statistics Courses

The curriculum taught in introductory statistics courses rarely introduce students to the types of methodologies that have made statisticians and data scientists ‘sexy’. “Before they can learn advanced methods—such as randomization tests, bootstrapping, or CART (Classification and Regression Trees)—students need to have a foundation in basic methods” is a common refrain from introductory statistics instructors. In this talk, I will offer rationale for why advanced methods not only can, but should be included in an introductory course, and how they emphasize the type of statistical thinking that is often viewed as an important outcome for introductory students.  I will also share how we have done this in an introductory statistics course for social science students at the University of Minnesota. I will also offer suggestions and lessons learned from the classroom. 

Schedule

To view the schedule, please click on this link.

Advance homework for participants

Garfield, JB and Ben-Zvi, D (2007) “How students learn statistics revisited: A current review of research on teaching and learning statistics”. International Statistical Review, 75(3), 372-396.

Ridgway, J (2015) “Implications of the Data Revolution for Statistics Education” International Statistical Review. 0(0), 1-22. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/insr.12110/epdf.

Zieffler, A, Garfield, J, Alt, S, Dupuis, D, Holleque, K, and Chang, B (2008) “What Does Research Suggest About the Teaching and Learning of Statistics at the College Level? A Review of the Literature” Journal of Statistics Education, 16(2), available online at http://www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v16n2/zieffler.html.
Zieffler, A (July, 2015 ) “Statistics Education: Is an Evidence-Based Discipline Based on Evidence?” Invited talk at the Advancing Innovation and Scholarship in Statistics Education in Canada workshop. Video archive available at http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/programs/scientific/15-16/statistics_ed/.