Statistics for Empowerment and Social Engagement: Teaching Civic Statistics to Develop Informed Citizens

This book is a remarkable achievement that provides practical approaches to working in the new field of Civic Statistics, which aims to engage with and overcome problems in teaching quantitative skills. It includes 23 peer-reviewed chapters written by experts from ten countries and is designed to support and enhance the work of teachers and lecturers at the high school and tertiary levels. The book promotes the critical understanding of quantitative evidence relevant to burning social issues and provides ideas for developing curricula, educational resources, and teaching approaches.

Format: Hardback
Length: 614 pages
Publication date: 11 March 2023
Publisher: Springer International Publishing AG

This book is a remarkable achievement!

Civic Statistics is a new field of knowledge that aims to engage with and overcome well-documented and long-standing problems in teaching quantitative skills. The book includes 23 peer-reviewed chapters, written in coordination by an international group of experts from ten countries.

The book's main goal is to support and enhance the work of teachers and lecturers working at the high school and tertiary (university) levels. It is designed to promote and improve the critical understanding of quantitative evidence relevant to burning social issues such as epidemics, climate change, poverty, migration, natural disasters, inequality, employment, and racism.

Effective citizen engagement with social issues requires active participation and a broad understanding of data and statistics about societal issues. However, many statistics curricula are not designed to teach relevant skills nor to improve learners' statistical literacy.

Evidence about social issues is provided to the public via print and digital media, official statistics offices, and other information channels, and a great deal of data is accessible both as aggregated summaries and as individual records.

Chapters illustrate the approaches needed to teach and promote the knowledge, skills, dispositions, and enabling processes associated with critical understanding of Civic Statistics presented in many forms. These include: statistical analysis of authentic multivariate data; use of dynamic data visualizations; deconstructing texts about the social and economic well-being of societies and communities.

Chapters discuss the development of curricula and educational resources; use of emerging technologies to enhance teaching and learning; and the role of assessment in promoting critical understanding of Civic Statistics.

Overall, this book is a valuable resource for teachers, lecturers, and anyone interested in promoting critical understanding of quantitative evidence relevant to social issues. It offers practical approaches and insights that can help improve the teaching and learning of statistics and promote more effective citizen engagement with social issues.

Weight: 1118g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9783031207471
Edition number: 1st ed. 2022