Introduction and guidance

Welcome to this free badged course, Teaching and learning statistics.

The course follows the way teachers approach a statistical investigation in the classroom, working through the full statistical process from start to end. The best way to learn mathematics and statistics is to do it!

Statistics is used in many curriculum subjects, for example geography, PE, business and many others; so this course is not solely aimed at teachers of mathematics. Whilst core methods are covered and explained, this is done with a wider lens of helping learners understand the relevance of doing statistical calculations.

Context is key to statistical meaning. Throughout this course, statistics are discussed in the context of situations where they might realistically be applied in daily life.

This course starts with an overview of statistics and the process of undertaking a statistical project. Week 1 introduces the data handling cycle and looks at the initial planning stage of this cycle. Weeks 2–6 then work in order through the cycle, discussing relevant statistical concepts and how to introduce them to learners at each stage. In Week 7 you will look at misleading statistics and how statistics are presented in the media before then looking at the future of statistics in Week 8.

Please note that throughout this course the terms learner/s and pupil/s may be used interchangeably to represent those learning about statistics. In undertaking this course, you are a learner and the pupils whom you will be supporting are also learners.

The course lasts eight weeks, with approximately three hours of study per week. You can work through the course at your own pace, so if you have more time one week, there is no problem with pushing on to complete another week’s study. You can also take as long as you want to complete it.

There are lots of opportunities to check your learning, including short quizzes at the end of each week. The quizzes at the end of Week 4 and Week 8 are a bit longer and will contribute towards earning a digital badge to recognise your achievement.

Badges are not accredited by The Open University but they’re a great way to demonstrate your interest in the subject and commitment to your employer/potential employer, and to provide evidence of continuing professional development. You can find out more about the badges in the next section.

Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

Moving around the course

In the ‘Summary’ at the end of each week, you will find a link to the next week. If at any time you want to return to the start of the course, click on ‘Full course description’. From here you can navigate to any part of the course. Alternatively, use the week links at the top of every page of the course.

It’s also good practice, if you access a link from within a course page (including links to the quizzes), to open it in a new window or tab. That way you can easily return to where you’ve come from without having to use the back button on your browser.