Integrating Real-Life Data Analysis in Teaching Descriptive Statistics: A Constructivist Approach

This article looks at a process of integrating real-life data investigation in a course on descriptive statistics. Referring to constructivist perspectives, this article suggests a look at the potential of inculcating alternative teaching methods that encourage students to take a more active role in their own learning and participate in the process of assessing what they have learned. The article illustrates how this teaching method enabled students to realize that imparting meaning to sets of data is a complex activity which involves conceptual flexibility, integration of all the procedures that one has learned, and creative reasoning.