Statistical Literacy – Misuse of statistics and its consequences

• Main Authors: Arne Johannssen, Nataliya Chukhrova, Friederike Schmal, Kevin Stabenow
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2020-12-01
• Series: Journal of Statistics Education
• Subjects: big data literacy; covid-19; peer review; press release; seminar; statistics education; statistics teaching
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2020.1860727

Although statistical literacy has become a key competence in today’s data-driven society, it is usually not a part of statistics education. To address this issue, we propose an innovative concept for a conference-like seminar on the topic of statistical literacy. This seminar draws attention to the relevance and importance of statistical literacy, and moreover, students are made aware of the process of science communication and are introduced to the peer review process for the assessment of scientific papers. In the summer term 2020, the seminar was conducted as a joint project by the University of Hamburg, the University of Muenster and the Joachim Herz Foundation. In this paper, we present the concept of the seminar and our experience with this concept in the summer term 2020.