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Psychology lecturers are well-qualified to carry out action research which would contribute to the theoretical understanding of learning as well as having practical benefits for students. Pedagogical action research demonstrates how knowledge of psychology can be applied to solve practical problems, providing role models of psychological literacy to students, who can also beneficially be involved as participant researchers. Academics are urged to collect evidence to influence policy where higher education is facing new challenges, whether from changing economic conditions, technological developments, globalisation, student diversity, or greater expectations for personalised, engaging, and flexible learning. Five specific areas within the teaching of psychology are identified as offering rich opportunities for action research: study abroad; study skills for transition to university; engaging students with statistics; gamification; and teaching psychology to students from other disciplines. Readers are invited to join the authors in collaborating on future pedagogic action research in these areas.

In this paper, we report on the results of a series of e-mail interviews with statistics educators around the world, focusing on their views of the nature of teaching statistics as a "service" subject. What do they think are the important aspects of statistics to focus on in such servicing teaching? What do they think are the characteristics of good teachers? And how do they go about developing themselves as statistics teachers? We analyse their responses to these and other questions using a phenomenographic approach to identify an outcome space for their conceptions of teaching service statistics. We examine the centralities and tensions that emerged from their responses and discuss the implications--insights on agency and reflective practice. The study contributes to a research framework for understanding the nature of pedagogical awareness in contexts beyond the setting for this study and aims to stimulate discussion about teaching service courses.

This study examined the relationships among statistics achievement and four components of attitudes toward statistics (Cognitive Competence, Affect, Value, and Difficulty) as assessed by the SATS. Meta-analysis results revealed that the size of relationships differed by the geographical region in which the studies were conducted as well as by the component of statistics attitudes being examined. Medium effect sizes were found between statistics achievement and scores on the Affect and Cognitive Competence components for studies conducted in the United States whereas those conducted in other countries yielded small effect sizes. The Value and Difficulty components exhibited small effect sizes for both regions. In every case, the U.S. effect sizes were about double in size in comparison to those from non-U.S. countries. (Contains 2 tables.)

Over the past few decades there has been a large amount of research dedicated to the teaching of statistics. The impact of this research has started to change course content and structure, in both introductory and advanced courses for statisticians and those from other disciplines. In the light of these changes future directions in the teaching and learning of statistics must take into account new innovative pedagogical instructions, educational technologies and the abundance of Web resources that are now available. This article examines different aspects of currently identified challenges in the teaching and learning of statistics and gives an overview of useful strategies and innovations for developing research-based statistics courses in the context of recommendations for reforms, outlining the place of information technology within this framework. The article presents a review of the literature on the topic of statistics education and gives instructors a set of guidelines for generating new and effective teaching material. The summarised recommendations incorporate many innovations employed in a variety of successful statistics classes today. The review is complemented by a collection of statistics related online resources currently available on the Web. (Contains 3 tables.)