Developments of At School Projects for Collaborative Teaching and Learning in Statistics (with discussion)

In this paper I suggest ways in which data from two projects, CensusAtSchool and ExperimentsAtSchool, could be used to further improve collaborative teaching and learning, statistical thinking and literacy for learners and teachers. I propose that existing databases and resources should be used in more productive ways by coupling suggestions for accelerated experiential learning in statistics with developments in IT that enable many people to share and contribute to large electronic environments of material. First I review experience with setting up, running and maintaining CensusAtSchool within the UK since 1999. In that time it has become established as a useful way to enrich the statistical experience of learners and teachers in schools. The sister project, ExperimentsAtSchool, is less well developed but also collects data that are created by learners. Whereas CensusAtSchool produces data about the participating learners, in ExperimentsAtSchool the data are produced from experiments the learners carry out in a designed environment. Then I propose some new directions for the development of these projects that could form the basis of an open-source environment for collaborative teaching, learning, assessment and professional development activities in statistics.