Civic Engagement in Higher Education: A university course in civic statistics for mathematics preservice teachers

Abstract

Civic statistics are statistics that concern us, such as labour statistics, health statistics, economic statistics, and so on. Thus, (civic) statistical thinking is necessary in order to be a responsible citizen, to be an active part of the modern society and to enhance civic engagement like in service learning. In particular, the school should educate children to be “mündig” – this can be done in mathematics lessons and especially in the field of statistics. In order to achieve this, teachers must be educated accordingly. We have designed a university course “Statistical literacy in mathematics classroom” with the aim of promoting civic statistical thinking. In this workshop report, we present activities from our course, share our experiences with the course 16/17 and describe how we have redesigned the (currently on-going) course for winter term 17/18.