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  • 1.  IMPACT in Action - Biggest Challenge facing Introductory Statistics

    Posted 05-23-2022 08:43:00
    What do you think is the biggest challenge facing introductory statistics instructors currently?  What resources have you found to help you address this challenge?

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    Mark Earley
    he/him/his
    Assistant Professor
    Columbus State CC
    Columbus OH
    mearley3@cscc.edu
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  • 2.  RE: IMPACT in Action - Biggest Challenge facing Introductory Statistics

    Posted 05-26-2022 12:43:00
    One challenge is how to promote change beyond our own classrooms.  How can we influence entire departments to update the technology they use in the introductory statistics course?  How can we influence entire departments to teach a course aligned with the GAISE guidelines?  How can we ensure that our associate faculty have access to professional development opportunities and support for any innovations they may want to try?

    Another challenge is the growth of data science as a discipline and career pathway.  Do our courses follow the first GAISE recommendation:  Teach statistics as an investigative process of problem-solving and decision-making?  Are we truly teaching statistical thinking or are we giving students "recipes" to follow in certain statistical scenarios?  

    I think the best resource to help address these challenges is a commitment to continued learning.  While my degrees in mathematics have equipped me to teach the rest of the math curriculum at my college, they did not prepare me for teaching a modern statistics course.  I depend on professional development that the statistics community generously provides through conferences such as ECOTS, USCOTS, and the many statistics educators who speak at our AMATYC conference.  I also follow several statistics blogs and social media accounts that have given me great ideas and material for my course.

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    Rebecca Wong
    Instructor
    West Valley College
    Saratoga CA
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