Teachers4DataAnalytics
Overview
Teachers4DataAnalytics was conceptualized by Prof Delia North (Statistician, UKZN), as a key project to create awareness amongst high school learners of the job opportunities that exist for those that study Data Analytics (Data Science, Statistics) at tertiary level. The project aims to advocate for teachers to appreciate the value of sound statistical reasoning, through fun activities and inspirational talks.
Through their long association as members of the International Association for Statistics Education, Prof Delia North approached the world expert in setting standards for Statistical Training at school level, Prof Christine Franklin (Senior Lecturer Emerita in Statistics, University of Georgia) to be a partner on this project. Prof Franklin was instrumental in defining the materials that teachers are presented with at the Teachers4DataAnalytics workshops, to encourage sound statistical reasoning in the classroom.
To prepare learners for engaging with data collected in the classroom, SAS Data Fly was used as the preferred software. Dr Nombuso Zondo, a standout young lecturer in Statistics at UKZN, was instrumental in defining the SAS DataFly computer lab sessions for the Teachers4DataAnalytics program. Dr Danielle Roberts (UKZN) has played a pivotal role on the technical side, with website development and managing the poster competition.
The Teachers4DataAnalytics is a scalable event, with the launch at UKZN to be followed by similar workshops to be held around the country, then the continent.
The UKZN launch of the Teachers4DataAnalytics workshop was held on 13 August 2022, where the prototype was developed, with Prof Christine Franklin being a special guest. Her talk was recorded in high resolution, so as to make this world leader “appear” at repeat offerings of Teachers4DataAnalytics.
The first phase further consisted of the launch event at UKZN (13 August 2022), followed by two more presentations of the Teachers4DataAnalytics workshop:
University of the Western Cape (UWC): 14 October 2022
North West University (NWU): 15 October 2022
Team UKZN (Prof North, Dr Zondo and Dr Roberts) travelled to UWC and NWU to attend the launch of the Teachers4DataAnalytics at these institutions.
Finally, a national poster competition was held for all teachers that attended the three Teachers4DataAnalytics workshops.
As a first phase of the Teachers4DataAnalytics program, the series of workshops for FET Phase Mathematics teachers are being held at UKZN, NWU and UWC under the leadership of
UKZN (Prof Delia North, Dr Nombuso Zondo, Dr Danielle Roberts)
NWU (Prof James Alison, Mr Lethani Ndwandwe)
UWC (Prof Renette Blignaut, Dr Humphrey Brydon)
To ensure that teachers have top class training, the expertise from the above teams have been further enhanced by partnering with undisputed world leaders in the field of Statistics Education (Prof Christine Franklin) and Analysis Tools (SAS):
Prof Christine Franklin (Senior Lecturer Emerita in Statistics, University of Georgia; K-12 Statistical Ambassador, American Statistical Association) is a world leader in laying the foundation solidly at base level, for sound Statistical reasoning. Accordingly, Prof Franklin was a special guest at the launch of the Teachers4DataAnalytics program at UKZN, to present the main address to teachers, thereby setting the scene for the afternoon computer lab session, run by Dr Zondo.
SAS is an international company producing software systems for data analysis and report writing. The workshops that run during the Teachers4DataAnalytics program will be based on SAS DataFly, an interactive, real time visualization tool for the classroom. This tool will also form the basis for the poster competition at the end of the year, where Mathematics teachers can display their creativity (story telling with data), using SAS DataFly.
Media Coverage
Teachers4DataAnalytics has received a wide range of media coverage:
Professor Christine (Chris) Franklin is the K-12 School Level Statistics Ambassador for the American Statistical Association and an elected ASA Fellow. She retired from the Department of Statistics at the University of Georgia, in the USA, as Lothar Tresp Honoratus Honors Professor and Senior Lecturer Emerita in Statistics. She is the co-author of an Introductory Statistics textbook for Advanced Placement Statistics and post-secondary, co-author of a sports statistics textbook for secondary school, and writing team chair for major ASA policy documents (Pre-K-12 GAISE and the Statistical Education for Teachers) and statistics writer for the NCTM policy documents Catalyzing Change. She is a past Chief Reader for AP Statistics and a Fullbright scholar to New Zealand. Chris welcomes opportunities to collaborate and share her love of statistics with teachers and teacher educations. She is 'crazy' about running, hiking, scoring baseball games and reading mysteries.
Professor Delia North graduated with a BSc, BSc (Hons), MSc and PhD respectively from the former University of Natal in South Africa. Her undergraduate majors were Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics and her postgraduate degrees were in Statistics (Probability Theory). She joined the University as a lecturer in 1982 and was Dean and Head of the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science from 2016 to 2022. She has over 35 years' experience in the teaching and design of the Statistics curricula at university level. Over the years, her passion for teaching Statistics has resulted in her becoming the leading figure in South African Statistics Education circles. She is known in particular for the ground-breaking work that she has done to assist with the introduction of Statistics at school level in South Africa, having been on a government task team to define the school curriculum, as well as being a master trainer for in-service teacher training to deliver the Data Handling component of the school curriculum.