Teaching Statistics with GAISE (including an example of statistical literacy)

GAISE is the acronym for Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education and is the product of a report issued through the American Statistical Association. More detailed information can be found at the AmStat website http://www.amstat.org/education/gaise/GAISECollege.htm The report contains six recommendations for an introductory statistics course:

1. Emphasize statistical literacy and develop statistical thinking.

2. Use real data.

3. Stress conceptual understanding rather than mere knowledge of procedures.

4. Foster active learning in the classroom.

5. Use technology for developing concepts and analyzing data.

6. Use assessments to improve and evaluate student learning.

Using these six guidelines will help us structure our statistics courses to enable our students to become statistically literate. For example, students should believe and understand why random sampling allows results of surveys and experiments to be extended to the population from which the sample was taken. They should also appreciate that random assignment in comparative experiments allows cause and effect conclusions to be drawn, but that, in general, association is not causation.

An understanding of this last fact would have helped the writer in last Sunday’s Virginian-Pilot (“Model troubled U.S. schools on Israeli kibbutz”, February 6, 2006, page J3) avoid some statistical mis-steps and make a stronger case for his proposal. The author has data that show that “although kibbutzim comprise only 5% of the Israeli population, surprisingly large numbers of kibbutzniks become teachers, lawyers, doctors, and political leaders… 75% of Israeli air force pilots … came from the kibbutz movement.” Based on this information, the author believes we should create a system of child development centers to provide the same support to our children that the Israeli children receive while their parents are working. His conclusion is that this will cause our children to perform better when they enter school “ready to learn”. There is definitely an association between growing up in a kibbutz and becoming an adult with a successful career. But does being in the kibbutz cause the children to aspire to academic and professional success? Or are there confounding or lurking variables at work? Variables such as stability of home life or parents’ attitude about their children’s success need to be considered. Did anyone ask if being in the highly charged atmosphere of kibbutz life motivated the children to turn toward service or government careers? Perhaps kibbutz life removes possible distractions to academic success, distractions which children in our society would still face. A child’s participation in a day care center is not the only factor determining his or her success in school. Daycare participation can be important but does not necessarily cause a child to do well in school. Could your students read this article and ask some of these same questions?

If you want to go further with discussions of these guidelines, consider attending one of the presentations about them at the VMATYC conference this Spring.

Judy Williams, TCC

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