Statistical Literacy Curriculum Design

Abstract

College-level students pursuing majors that don’t require a quantitative course still need a statistical literacy course that helps them develop the skills to evaluate arguments that use statistics as evidence. Such a course should entail utility in everyday use such that statistical literacy results in a lasting appreciation of the value of statistics as needed in everyday life, civic life, and professional life as a data consumer. A course designed to promote statistical literasy should help students understand and analyze various influences on the size and direction of a statistical association and should include key topics in conditional probability, confounding, and the vulnerability of statistical significance to confounding. This paper describes some new ways of presenting these ideas that are based on the results of field trials conducted in connection with the W. M. Keck Statistical Literacy project at Augsburg College. After studying statistical literacy, 43 percent of Augsburg students strongly agreed that the course helped them develop critical thinking skills and 18 percent strongly agreed that successful completion of the course should become requirement for graduation.