Editors’ Note: Fall

Welcome to a new school year! We hope this issue of Statistics Teacher finds you well and lends some inspiration to your statistical teaching this year.

The fall 2019 issue includes the following:

“Teaching Quartile Location-Using Sample Size Divisibility,” comes from Jon-Paul Paolino, a faculty member at Mercy College in New York who teaches introductory statistics courses. He attempts to address the confusion students often experience finding quartile locations in large data sets using textbook algorithms by suggesting a table-based method.

Christopher Engledowl and Tracey Gorham Blanco, faculty members at New Mexico State University, bring us “Using LOCUS Released Items with Practicing Teachers,” which focuses on in-service teacher development in statistics using LOCUS items. They outline types of thinking teachers demonstrate using LOCUS items as the context, with an emphasis on developing informal inferential reasoning.

Finally, Jane Watson and Noleine Fitzallen from the University of Tasmania, contribute “Building Understanding of Randomness from Ideas About Variation and Expectation.” Recognizing the challenge of helping students build a robust understanding of randomness—especially when they often come with a preconceived notion of what random means—the authors provide examples of activities and discourse moves teachers can implement to support and develop students’ understanding of randomness and variability. Watson and Fitzallen also address many of the misconceptions that surface and challenges that arise when we ask students to think about randomness.