Preparing Secondary Mathematics Educators to Teach Statistics

Abstract

In this paper, we address two Roundtable topics: distance education and developing teachers' statistical knowledge. We describe a new professional development program for secondary school mathematics teachers who are preparing to teach statistics. We also discuss what we have learned in our efforts to design a course that has a significant online component and that is relevant and useful from a teacher’s perspective. We describe the ways in which our online environment incorporates group work, self-study, concept exploration, and assessments. We also discuss the challenges associated with delivering the necessary content while simultaneously accommodating the practical time constraints of adult students who are, themselves, teaching full-time.