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Abstract:
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College level introductory statistics courses are often taught by instructors of mathematics who have a stronger academic background in mathematics than in statistics. This study attempts to explore the attitudes held by such statistics educators toward statistics and statistics teaching. We draw on previous work that has established three pedagogical components of attitude - affective, cognitive and behavioral - to seek explanations for teachers' attitudes toward statistics (both as a discipline and as a tool to solve problems) and the teaching recommendations suggested by the GAISE college report. The study considers teachers' attitudes toward statistics in relation to their personal and academic backgrounds and their disposition to participate in professional development. Quantitative data are currently being collected from in-service high school math teachers who have taught AP statistics and college instructors who have taught introductory statistics. We anticipate that the results of the analysis will shed light on the relationships among teachers' personal and academic backgrounds, their teaching practices, and their attitudes toward statistics and statistics teaching.
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