Fostering Statistics TA Development as Writing Instructors

• Activity Number: 290
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Tuesday, August 4, 2009 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistical Education
• Author(s): Erin Blankenship*+ and Walter Stroup and Jennifer Green and Alison Friedow and Shari Stenberg
• Companies: University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• Keywords: statistical literacy ; low-stakes writing ; teaching assistants ; introductory statistics

Abstract

The introductory statistics course at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has been revised in view of the GAISE guidelines, resulting in its being designated a 'writing intensive' course by the university. The introductory course at UNL is taught primarily by statistics graduate teaching assistants, who have their own difficulties with writing. We developed, together with the Department of English, a 1-credit semester-long training course, specifically for statistics TAs addressing writing. The course was taught for the first time in fall 2008. The course focused on helping the students gain a deeper understanding of statistical ideas through writing and how to use these concepts in their teaching. As the course developed, we increasingly focused on low-stakes writing. This presentation will describe the structure of the course, as well as lessons we learned the first time through.