Examples from an introductory course in developing probabilistic statistical thinking: Part 1

The concepts, structures and thinking of probability and distributions underpin all statistics, but the development of these in statistics education has received far less attention over the past ten to fifteen years than the topics of what has become known as the “statistics education reform movement”. This reform, built on recommendations for “more data and concepts, less theory, fewer recipes”, and much of the associated research effort, has been oriented to the understanding, skills and thinking of statistical data investigations, both at school and tertiary levels, and the use of statistical data analysis methods and technology in real contexts at the tertiary level. Many statisticians think it is time to bring the principles of data-driven, holistic, authentic and active learning into the development of probabilistic and distributional understanding, reasoning and modelling…