POSITION PAPER ON THE PROPOSED STATISTICS CURRICULUM IN K-12 August 23, 2014 at 9:03am We, the undersigned, officers, as well as past Presidents, of the Philippine Statistical Association, Inc. (PSAI), recognize the current efforts of the Department of Education (DepED) to enhance basic education in the country. We laud the DepED for using the K-12 program as a mechanism for long overdue changes in the basic education curriculum. Concepts in Statistics are being proposed to be taught from Grades 1 to 8, and Grade 10, culminating in the second-semester Grade 11 Math course in Statistics. We extol these efforts to improve statistical literacy among Filipino learners, so that they can become effective citizens in this age of ICT and Big Data. On behalf of the country’s sole scientific society of individuals and institutions committed to the promotion of the proper use of Statistics, we would like to call the attention of DepED to a few matters that will affect the teaching of Statistics to our young: (a) Statistics is not Math.While Statistics uses a lot of Math tools, Statistics deals with uncertainty as well as inherent variability in data. These concepts of uncertainty and variability set Statistics apart from Math. In consequence, teachers of College Statistics (typically Math teachers) have experienced many challenges owing to difference in paradigms between Math and Statistics. This led the PSAI to conduct training for Stat teachers in college, with the support of the Commission on Higher Education (CHED). Even in the current high school curriculum, Statistics is supposed to be taught in the last quarter of third year high school, but typically, teachers may not do so owing to their own difficulty understanding these topics. It is very likely that teachers of Grades 1-3, Grades 4-8 Math teachers, and Grade 11 Math teachers, who will be asked to teach Statistics throughout K-12 program, will face similar, if not more difficulties. These teachers (and moreso, our learners) cannot be expected to make the linkages about the role of uncertainty and variability in the statistical problem-solving process. Students will need not mere lectures but also, and more importantly, activities in learning Statistics concepts. (b) Teacher training will be crucial. Training a select set of teachers for two weeks who, in turn, will teach a cadre of Statistics teachers for another two weeks may not be sufficient given the challenge of learning the discipline. The Philippines can learn from the wealth of experience, and current practices of various countries such as the United States, Australia, Japan, Canada, Korea, Singapore in teaching Statistics in their respective K-12 programs. (c) The proposed second-semester Grade 11 Math course on Statistics containing concepts on probability, sampling distribution, hypothesis testing, regression and correlation is predicated on Grade 12 students requiring learning research methods. Hitherto, no country except the Philippines has a thesis or research course in its K-12 curriculum, hence no Statistics course has been specifically designed and placed (Grade 11 in the Philippines case) as a prerequisite to research (Grade 12). The DepED may need to clarify whether the proposed curriculum in K-12 is aimed at having all learners develop skills and competencies in the actual conduct of research, or in the appreciation of research results. This clarification may help in scoping the coverage of materials to be taught in the Grade 11 course. We hope that the DepED will have a constructive engagement with the statistics community on its plans to implement the proposed Statistics curriculum in K-12. In this regard, the PSAI will be having a panel discussion on “Statistics in the K-12 Program” on the second day of the PSAI’s Annual Conference to be held this September 11-12, 2014 in Waterfront Cebu City (philstat.org.ph/news/2014/05/28/psai-annual-conference-2014 ; philstat.org.ph/news/2014/07/31/2014-psai-annual-conference-bulletin-no-3-list-hotels ). We hope senior management of DepED, as well as those of CHED, and the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) can be part of this panel to provide reactions to a short study conducted by some of the PSAI’s esteemed members. We also hope that DepED bureaus and units of CHED and TESDA in charge of curriculum development can likewise join this conference in the pursuit of making Statistics taught and learned well in the K-12 program, as well as in college, and in technical vocational education. SIGNED JOSE RAMON G. ALBERT President, 2014-2015, and Past President, 2004-2005 ANA MARIA L. TABUNDA Vice President 2014-2015, and Past President, 1999-2000 WINECITO L. TAN Secretary, 2014-2015 DIWA C. GUINIGUINDO Treasurer, 2014-2015 NIEVES L. OSORIO Immediate Past President, 2012-2013 and Past President, 2008-2009 VICENTE B. VALDEPEÑAS, JR. Past President, 1985-1986; 2010-2011 ISIDORO P. DAVID Past President, 1987; 2006-2007 ROMEO S. RECIDE Past President, 1998; 2003 CARMELITA N. ERICTA Past President, 2001-2002 TOMAS P. AFRICA Past President, 1988-1989 MARGARITA F. GUERRERO Past President, 1996-1997 NELIA R. MARQUEZ Past President, 1993-1995
Posted on: Sat, 23 Aug 2014 01:13:25 +0000
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