Design of Statistics Learning Environments

Abstract

The goal of this chapter is to draw attention to the need to think about learning environments and their design as a way of considering how sustainable change in the learning and teaching of statistics can be supported. The goal is not to advocate one particular approach to the design of learning environments but rather to raise awareness of the need to consider this lens in statistics education. We first present the rationale for the importance of a focus on learning environments for statistics education. We provide several examples of learning environments that operationalize and integrate various design perspectives and are informed by two theoretical frameworks: social constructivist theory of learning and realistic mathematics education theory. We discuss these examples in a critical way by comparing and evaluating their designs, looking for common threads among them, and develop from them six design considerations for statistics learning environments. Finally, we discuss implications and emerging directions and goals for further implementa- tion and research.