Rethinking how randomness is taught in K-12 statistics subjects

Abstract

The effective teaching and learning of statistics persist as a challenge in K-12 education and has clear impacts in developing competence and confidence of students in entering STEM fields especially in today's digital age of data science. In this paper, it is proposed that the current pedagogy around teaching the concept of randomness, a core element of statistics, is incomplete. It is argued that expanding on the observer-relative nature of randomness will address commonly existing ambiguities on what is and what is not random, help in explaining more complex statistical concepts such as hypothesis testing, and impart greater awareness on the practical value of the practice of statistics in data science.