Elementary Statistics Instructors\u27 Uptake of the Teaching Practices Recommended by the American Statistical Association

Previous studies point out there has been a wide gap, in the teaching of mathematics, between the practices recommended in the credential programs and the practices teachers actually do. The purpose of this study is to explore how consistent the teaching practices of introductory statistics instructors are to the recommendations endorsed by the American Statistical Association, to understand what their attitudes to the gap are, and to identify the factors that prevent the instructors from implementing the recommended practices. Data were collected from nine statistics instructors at a state university through survey, classroom observations, and interviews. Findings indicate that the disjuncture between recommended and actual practices is wide for some instructors and suggest that various factors such as teaching experience, institutional support, instructors’ beliefs on the recommended guidelines, and their eagerness to adopt new practices play an important role in instructors’ implementation of suggested practices