Page 1 Teaching statistical report-writing for Level 3 internal assessments Dr Nicola Ward Petty Statistics Learning Centre 2013
Page 2 Plan Introduction Report writing Issues Strategies Statistics Learning Centre resources Questions
Page 3 Introductions I’m Nicola Ward Petty Lecturer in Operations Research at University of Canterbury for 20 years. Included applied statistics to commerce students. Now director of the Statistics Learning Centre. PhD in allocation of resources for the education of students who are blind or vision-impaired. School effectiveness, modelling, opportunity to learn. With me: Dr Shane Dye Also from UC. Similar background.
statsLC.com
Page 5 Background Quiz a)How long have you been teaching mathematics? b)How long have you been teaching statistics? c)How confident do you feel teaching trigonometry? Very confidentConfidentNot confidentVery unconfident d)How confident do you feel teaching statistical report-writing? Very confidentConfidentNot confidentVery unconfident e)How do you feel about the new statistics curriculum?
Page 6 New standards and literacy What literacy requirements do each of the standards have? Think of reading as well as writing Time Series 3.09Bivariate 3.10Formal Inference 3.11Experimental Design 3.12Statistical Reports 3.13Probability 3.14Distributions
Page 7 Statistics and Report-writing Discuss with your neighbour. (Don’t all start at number 1) 1.Why is it important for students to be able to write good statistical reports? 2.How well are your students doing at writing reports? Why might they not be doing as well as you would like them to? 3.What are you doing to help them develop their report-writing skills? 4.Why is it difficult for mathematics teachers to teach report- writing?
Page 8 Statistics and Report-writing 1.Why is it important for students to be able to write good statistical reports? You don’t realise whether you understand or not until you try to write it down. The process is important. Better critics of other reports Part of the literacy initiative Useful skill for employment – report writing, and literacy generally Required for marking!
Page 9 Statistics and Report-writing 2.How well are your students doing at writing reports? Why are they not doing as well as you would like them to? Writing too much – brain spill – 65 pages! Repeating themselves Not sure what is relevant so put everything in… But leave out important aspects Non-sentences Poorly structured Not enough linkage to the context …or… Too much context and not enough analysis Some are great – generally from social-science students
Page 10 Statistics and Report-writing 3.What are you doing to help them develop their report-writing skills? Guidelines Feedback Practice Homework In class
Page 11 Statistics and Report-writing 4.Why is it difficult for mathematics teachers to teach report- writing? Not used to teaching or assessing written English May feel uncomfortable and lacking in skills Few resources available to help May be unconvinced of the necessity of the task The students themselves are not happy with writing
Page 12 Activity Time series output from iNZight. Monthly retail sales in $m in the USA of different categories. Raw data. From Your task Find something interesting in the graphs. Write down a good sentence and a not so good sentence about it. Share your sentences with your neighbour(s). Choose your best and worst sentences and write in big letters on paper to show the class.
Page 13 Time series output
Page 14 Show us what you wrote! Short idea sentence to complete detailed sentence: Books peak in August. This is a good idea sentence! Books = the retail sales of books in the USA Peak in August = are greater in August than in any other month. Convert to a sentence: The retail sales of books in the USA are greater in August than in any other month of the year. Quantify: On average the sales in August are approximately twice what they are in other months except for December and January. Hypothesise: This is probably because August is the beginning of the school year in the USA, and people are buying textbooks.
Page 15 Teaching strategies The report should not be the first thing they write Literacy is part of the statistics curriculum Small exercises for homework, peer review good feedback is necessary – descriptive rather than evaluative. Checklists so they can see if the ideas are communicated well. Warm-up sentences at the start of class Write ALL the time while doing the analysis – clarifies thinking “Fill in the gaps” activities give structure Make your own from a report. Remove words. (Cloze exercise) On-line activities (NZStats 3 from Statistics Learning Centre) Give examples and formats – writing guides Page limits in assessments (self-defence for teachers)
Page 16 Writing Guides Teach principles as well as guiding assignment All four internal standards: Time Series – Like a business report Bivariate – Scientific Inference – Includes explaining the ideas of bootstrapping and confidence intervals Experimental Design – Description of the whole process so that it could be replicated Feel free to copy and use our writing guides, but leave the branding on them. There are exercises to go with them on the StatsLC.com site.
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Page 18 Feedback
Page 19 More ideas (if room in brain) Think about the role of context in a mathematics problem. Now think about the role of context in a statistical investigation. How are they different? Where do the three external standards fit? 3.12Evaluate reports 3.13Probability 3.14Distributions How do we teach students to make sense of questions?
Page 20 Collaboration Request I would be keen to work with a teacher on the literacy aspects of the statistics curriculum. I provide – sounding board, ideas, some classroom help You provide – some time, students to play with NOT a big formal research project. Just trying things out. Talk to me later if you are interested.
Page 21 How to use NZ Stat 3 on-line resources Homework Teachers assign a certain activity or quiz for homework. Students can show their completion by printing out the results. (We provide weekly reports) Classroom enrichment Use the activities in class time to complement other work. “Flipped” classroom - see my blog on this Review The exercises in NZ Stats 3 can be used repeatedly. Large database so students get a different test each time. Students can also track their own progress. Good for Scholarship as includes all standards. Help with assignments NZ Stats provides guidelines and practice in report-writing Replace the textbook/homework book Cheaper and better!
Page 22 Features of NZ Stats 3 Immediate Feedback Easy access – any device Up-to-date and responsive Engaging – will have “badges” next year Teachers can track activity and results with weekly reports
Page 23 Weekly Report Example
Page 24 Talk to me about our discounted introductory site licences.
statsLC.com
NZ Stats 3
3.08 Time Series
Video
Quiz to follow video
Instant Feedback Instant Feedback
Can be sat multiple times with different questions – until all correct!
Summary of test
Progress indicators
Notes for iNZight
Datasets formatted ready
Interpreting output
Notes to guide assignment
Bivariate 3.09
Formal Inference 3.10
Experimental Design 3.11
Page 50 What else would you like? Talk to me about our discounted introductory site licences.