Improving Statistical Literacy in School and Society:
The UK Experience
Peter Holmes
RSS Centre for Statistical
Education, Nottingham, England

Background
 40 years in UK Schools
 Initially for age 16 to 18 academic students
 Later for all ages 7 to 18 and all abilities

The Initial Introduction
 Part of a specialist mathematics course
 An alternative to theoretical mechanics
 Suitable for students of biology, geography & economics
 Content classical mathematical statistics - probability, distributions, hypothesis testing, correlation & regression

Two Trends
 Disappointment with the course for 16 -
18 year olds
 Rise of modern mathematics in secondary schools

Disappointment
 Emphasised mathematics rather than statistics
 Did not develop practical skills
 Was not as much use to other subject areas as hoped

Into the Main School
 Education for everyone ( Half our
Future)
 Emphasis on numeracy - using number in practice
 Simple probability and statistical representation in secondary schools
 Collecting and interpreting data in primary schools

Schools Council Project on
Statistical Education
 RSS initiative

6 year programme costing then £250k
(say 1.6 million Euros today)
 What is statistics? Why teach it? Who and how teach it?
 Develop teaching materials

What is Statistics?
 What statisticians do!!
 Statistics is a practical subject devoted to obtaining and processing data with a view to making statements which often extend beyond the data. These statements are called inferences.

Why Teach Statistics to All?
 Statistics is an integral part of our culture
 Statistical thinking is an essential part of numeracy
 Exposure to real data can aid personal development and decision making
 Statistical ideas are widely used at work after school
 Early exposure can give sound intuition, later formalised

Who and how? - Two
Distracting Reasons
 Statistics is an essential part of present day mathematics
 Statistics is useful to many other parts of the school curriculum

Two Global Aims -
Pupils should become aware of and appreciate
 The role of statistics in society - the many and various fields in which statistical ideas are used
 The nature of statistical thinking - the power and limitations of statistical thought

Mathematics Counts - The
Cockcroft report
 Government enquiry into teaching of mathematics (early 1980’s)
 Influential in later developments
 Evidence given by RSS
 Major references to statistics especially §§775 & 781

§775
 Statistics is not just a set of techniques, it is an attitude of mind in approaching data. In particular it acknowledges the fact of uncertainty and variability in data collection. It enables people to make decisions in the face of this uncertainty.

§781
 Statistical numeracy requires a feel for numbers, an appreciation of levels of accuracy, the making of sensible estimates, a common sense approach to data in supporting an argument, the awareness of the variety of interpretation of figures and a judicious understanding of widely used concepts such as mean and percentages. All these are part of everyday living.

The First National Curriculum in Mathematics

Mid ‘80s
 For all ages 5 to 16
 Reflected Cockcroft
 About 25% on data handling, little probability
 Flawed by assessment

Current Proposals for the
National Curriculum
 RSS involvement
 Slightly less statistics
 More practical and investigational in approach
 Based an investigational cycle

Interpret &
Discuss
The Cycle
Specify the
Problem
Process &
Represent
Collect
Data
Plan

Content linked to the Cycle
 Pupils should be taught to carry out every aspect of the Handling Data
Cycle
 Communicate mathematically using diagrams linked to related explanatory text
 Make decisions about problem solving strategies to use in their statistical work

Links to Use in Society
 Through problems and investigations gain insight into how statistics are used in real life to make informed decisions
 Pupils should be introduced to important uses of statistics in society
 Interpret statistics from society, including index numbers (General Index of Retail Prices); time series (population growth) and survey data (National
Census)

RSS Outreach to General
Public
 Educational
 Response to Government Consultation
Papers
 Public lectures and meetings
 Media contacts

Educational
 Associate School Programme
 Workshops for teachers
 Local Meetings
 Representation on Working Parties and
Development Groups
 Support for the RSS Centre for
Statistical Education

Response to Government
Initiatives
 New Centres for teaching and learning
 Institute for learning and teaching
 Environment and Pollution
 Official Statistics

Public Lectures and Meetings
 The Beveridge lecture on social issues
 Unemployment measures

Media Contacts
 There is a list of members who can be called on by the Press and other media for informed statistical comment on any major issue of the day.

And the Work Continues