From Research to Practice

Jackie Miller
The Ohio State University

Journal of Statistics Education Volume 15, Number 1 (2007), jse.amstat.org/v15n1/miller.html

Copyright © 2007 by Jackie Miller all rights reserved. This text may be freely shared among individuals, but it may not be republished in any medium without express written consent from the author and advance notification of the editor.

Key Words: Statistics Education Research.

Abstract

A New Section for JSE and a Call for Papers

There is a real need for teachers of statistics to read statistics education research (or, more generally, education research in unrelated disciplines) in order to learn ways to improve students learning as well as become informed about different ways student understand and misunderstand statistical concepts. Trying to read the research can often be difficult, because research studies about teaching and learning statistics appear in so many different disciplines and publications, because they may use methodologies unfamiliar to statisticians, and because they may address questions that do not seem directly related to classroom teaching. Despite these challenges, there is a need for teachers of statistics to learn from and connect this research to their teaching. With this in mind, Jackie Miller organized a session on behalf of the CAUSE Research Advisory Board (CAUSE RAB - see http://www.causeweb.org/research/mission/) for the past Joint Statistical Meetings in 2006 in Seattle.

The session "Learning from and Applying Statistics Education Research to Our Own Teaching" had speakers Chris Franklin (The University of Georgia), Rob Gould (UCLA), and Joy Jordan (Lawrence University) and discussant Roxy Peck (CalPoly - San Luis Obispo). The three presenters were asked to find an article from the statistics education literature, read this article, and consider how to apply the implications of the research to their own teaching. Their presentations included reflections on the process of using research to inform their own teaching. If you attended the session, you know all three presenters did an excellent job with their assignments, and Roxy Peck was an invaluable discussant, raising issues about why statisticians do not routinely consult the research literature and challenging them to do this.

As the amount of statistics education research increases, there are now numerous studies reported in many venues from the Journal of Statistics Education to the Statistics Education Research Journal, as well as books and conference proceedings. The session was a success, and, with the support of the CAUSE RAB and JSE Editor Bill Notz, a new feature is being added to JSE.

Beginning with the July 2007 issue, Professors Franklin, Gould, Jordan, and Peck will "kick off" a new department of the Journal of Statistics Education entitled "From Research to Practice." Papers based on their presentations at JSM will appear in the next few issues of JSE. We encourage JSE readers to consider submitting future contributions to this new department, by finding a research article of interest, reading and reflecting on it, implementing ideas from the paper in their classes, assessing the results, writing up their findings, and submitting it to JSE. The CAUSE RAB would like to see this department succeed and Bill Notz invites such submissions to JSE. Articles submitted for this new department will go through the same peer review process as other submissions to JSE.

Jackie Miller
Department of Statistics
The Ohio State University
Columbus, OH 43210-1247
U. S. A.
jbm@stat.ohio-state.edu