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Role of Statistics in Advancing Quantitative Education

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International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science
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Introduction

Education policy makers and educators from all disciplines generally agree that as data have become more plentiful and more readily available, the importance of statistical literacy has grown (Utts 2003; Garfield and Ben-Zvi 2008). Since trends in availability of data show no signs of abating (indicators actually point to accelerating increases in data availability), the importance of teaching statistical thinking to students at all levels is difficult to overstate or overestimate. It is not an exaggeration to state that statistical/quantitative literacy is almost as critical to the future success of students as is reading literacy (Steen 2002). Thus, it is vitally important that both society and the statistics community understand the vital role of statistics in quantitative education.

Statistics’ Role in Quantitative Education

Several phrases are used somewhat interchangeably in reference to an individual’s ability to work with numbers and relationships and understand...

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References and Further Reading

  • Cook ET, Nash RN (1936) A Short Life of Florence Nightingale. Macmillan, New York

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  • GAISE (2005) Guidelines for assessment and instruction in statistics education. Retrieved November 2, 2009 from www.amstat.org/Education/gaise/GAISECollege.htm

  • Garfield JB, Ben-Zvi D (2008) Developing students’ statistical reasoning: connecting research and teaching practice. Springer, New York

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  • Jarman TL (1960) Developments in English Education in 1959: The year of the Crowther Report. Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft/Revue Internationale l’ Éducation 6(1):231–234

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  • Lawton L (2009) An exercise for illustrating the logic of hypothesis testing. J Stat Educ 17(2). Available at: www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v17n2/lawton.html

  • Madison BL, Steen LA (2008) Evolution of numeracy and the national numeracy network. Numeracy 1(1). Available at: http://services.bepress.com/numeracy/vol1/iss1/art2

  • Sotos AEC, Vanhoof S, Van den Noortgate W, Onghena P (2009) How confident are students in their misconceptions about hypothesis tests? J Stat Educ 17(2). Available at: www.amstat.org/publications/jse/v17n2/castrosotos.html

  • Steen LA (1990) Numeracy. Daedalus 119(2):211–231

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  • Steen LA (2002) Quantitative literacy: why numeracy matters for schools and colleges. Focus 22(2):8–9

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  • Utts J (2003) What educated citizens should know about statistics and probability. Am Stat 57(2):74–79

    MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

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© 2011 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

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Cochran, J.J. (2011). Role of Statistics in Advancing Quantitative Education. In: Lovric, M. (eds) International Encyclopedia of Statistical Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04898-2_62

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