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Covid-19 shows why we need Civic Statistics: illustrations and classroom activities (2022)
Book Chapter
Ridgway, J., & Ridgway, R. (2022). Covid-19 shows why we need Civic Statistics: illustrations and classroom activities. In J. Ridgway (Ed.), Statistics for empowerment and social engagement: teaching Civic Statistics to develop informed citizens (297-319). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20748-8_12

There are few better examples than a pandemic to demonstrate the importance of, and need for, Civic Statistics. Every country affected by Covid-19 faces the threat of widespread deaths, economic damage, and social disruption. Citizens and governments... Read More about Covid-19 shows why we need Civic Statistics: illustrations and classroom activities.

Civic Statistics in context: mapping the global evidence ecosystem (2022)
Book Chapter
Ridgway, J., & Ridgway, R. (2022). Civic Statistics in context: mapping the global evidence ecosystem. In J. Ridgway (Ed.), Statistics for empowerment and social engagement: teaching Civic Statistics to develop informed citizens (581-607). Springer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-20748-8_23

Human knowledge is not a coherent body of carefully structured knowledge, created by an expert group, and made accessible to others. Rather, it should be thought of as a dynamic ecosystem made up of creators and consumers connected in complex ways. H... Read More about Civic Statistics in context: mapping the global evidence ecosystem.

Covid and data science: Understanding R0 could change your life (2021)
Journal Article
Ridgway, J. (2021). Covid and data science: Understanding R0 could change your life. Teaching Statistics: An International Journal for Statistics and Data Science Teaching, 43(S1), S84-S92. https://doi.org/10.1111/test.12273

The Covid epidemic has provided an excellent example of the need to call on a wide variety of statistical tools to address a global problem, and can give students insights into some of the dimensions of data science. Here, we describe some of the cha... Read More about Covid and data science: Understanding R0 could change your life.

Looking Back- Looking Forward; Statistics and the Data Science Tsunami (2019)
Conference Proceeding
Ridgway, J., Nicholson, J., & Ridgway, R. (2020). Looking Back- Looking Forward; Statistics and the Data Science Tsunami. In Proceeding of the 62nd ISI World Statistics Congress 2019: Special Topic Session: Volume 3 (47-56)

The discipline of statistics arose from pressing needs to address a variety of social and scientific problems. The founders of the Royal Statistical Society in the UK, and the American Statistical Association were very diverse in their backgrounds an... Read More about Looking Back- Looking Forward; Statistics and the Data Science Tsunami.

Problematising high-stakes assessment in statistics (2019)
Conference Proceeding
Ridgway, J., & Nicholson, J. (2019). Problematising high-stakes assessment in statistics. In J. Contreras, M. Gea, M. López-Martín, & E. Molina-Portillo (Eds.), Actas del Tercer Congreso International Virtual de Educación Estadística (1-15)

Statistics emerged as a discipline to address pressing practical problems. In the UK, this has not been reflected in school statistics curricula, where students often work with small-scale invented data to develop mastery of statistical technique. Re... Read More about Problematising high-stakes assessment in statistics.

Data Science for all: A stroll in the foothills (2018)
Conference Proceeding
Ridgway, J., Ridgway, R., & Nicholson, J. (2018). Data Science for all: A stroll in the foothills. In M. . A. Sorto, A. White, & L. Guyot (Eds.), Looking back, looking forward : proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS10, July, 2018), Kyoto, Japan (1-6)

Data science presents both opportunities and threats to conventional statistics courses. Opportunities include being at the bleeding edge of data analysis, and learning new ways to model phenomena; threats include the challenge of learning new skills... Read More about Data Science for all: A stroll in the foothills.

Real-world contexts in statistics components of UK mathematics examinations: aiming forward, walking backwards (2018)
Conference Proceeding
Nicholson, J., & Ridgway, J. (2018). Real-world contexts in statistics components of UK mathematics examinations: aiming forward, walking backwards. In M. Sorto, A. White, & L. Guyot (Eds.), Looking back, looking forward : proceedings of the Tenth International Conference on Teaching Statistics (ICOTS10), July 2018, Kyoto, Japan

Reasoning with data is pervasive in society; evidence-based policy requires reasoning about complex data; many statistics curricula do not equip students to understand such reasoning. A new mathematics curriculum for upper secondary school (pre-unive... Read More about Real-world contexts in statistics components of UK mathematics examinations: aiming forward, walking backwards.

A response to White and Gorard: Against inferential statistics: How and why current statistics teaching gets it wrong (2017)
Journal Article
Nicholson, J., & Ridgway, J. (2017). A response to White and Gorard: Against inferential statistics: How and why current statistics teaching gets it wrong. Statistics Education Research Journal, 16(1), 66-73

White and Gorard make important and relevant criticisms of some of the methods commonly used in social science research, but go further by criticising the logical basis for inferential statistical tests. This paper comments briefly on matters we broa... Read More about A response to White and Gorard: Against inferential statistics: How and why current statistics teaching gets it wrong.

Interactive visualisations and statistical literacy (2017)
Journal Article
Sutherland, S., & Ridgway, J. (2017). Interactive visualisations and statistical literacy. Statistics Education Research Journal, 16(1), 26-30

Statistical literacy involves engagement with the data one encounters. New forms of data and new ways to engage with data – notably via interactive data visualisations – are emerging. Some of the skills required to work effectively with these new vis... Read More about Interactive visualisations and statistical literacy.

Visualizing complex data and working with visual data representations of multivariate data (2015)
Conference Proceeding
Nicholson, J., Ridgway, J., McCusker, S., & Sutherland, S. (2015). Visualizing complex data and working with visual data representations of multivariate data.

The world is a complex place, and to describe almost any interesting aspect of the world adequately requires multivariate data, or at least a number of related univariate data sets. A collaboration between the House of Commons Library and the SMART C... Read More about Visualizing complex data and working with visual data representations of multivariate data.

Designing Interactive Displays to Promote Effective use of Evidence (2015)
Conference Proceeding
Sutherland, S., Hedger, S., Ireland, M., & Ridgway, J. (2015). Designing Interactive Displays to Promote Effective use of Evidence. In M. Sorto (Ed.), Advances in statistics education : developments, experiences and assessments. Proceedings of the Satellite conference of the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE), July 2015, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Interactive displays are increasing being used to convey information, and are a significant factor in promoting statistical literacy (and illiteracy). Durham University and the House of Commons Library are collaborating to create data visualisations... Read More about Designing Interactive Displays to Promote Effective use of Evidence.

Strategies for Public Engagement with Official Statistics (2015)
Conference Proceeding
Ridgway, J., Nicholson, J., Sutherland, S., & Hedgers, S. (2015). Strategies for Public Engagement with Official Statistics. In M. Sorto (Ed.), Advances in statistics education : developments, experiences and assessments. Proceedings of the Satellite conference of the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE), July 2015, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

High quality data are available on a very wide range of topics. However, there are barriers to be overcome before citizens engage with these data. First is access; data are often distributed across different websites. Second is exposure; data need to... Read More about Strategies for Public Engagement with Official Statistics.

Implications of the data revolution for statistics education (2015)
Journal Article
Ridgway, J. (2016). Implications of the data revolution for statistics education. International Statistical Review, 84(3), 528-549. https://doi.org/10.1111/insr.12110

There has never been a more exciting time to be involved in statistics. Emerging data sources provide new sorts of evidence, provoke new sorts of questions, make possible new sorts of answers and shape the ways that evidence is used to influence poli... Read More about Implications of the data revolution for statistics education.

Crimes Against Statistical Inference: Forcing Teachers to be Accessories after the (Absence of) Fact. (2011)
Journal Article
Ridgway, R., & Ridgway, J. (2011). Crimes Against Statistical Inference: Forcing Teachers to be Accessories after the (Absence of) Fact. Online educational research journal,

Reports on pupil performance form an important element in the efforts to improve the quality of education. Here, we examine the practicalities of making reliable judgements about changes in school performance over time. In a very large number of prim... Read More about Crimes Against Statistical Inference: Forcing Teachers to be Accessories after the (Absence of) Fact..

Developing Statistical Literacy in Students and Teachers. (2011)
Book Chapter
Ridgway, J., Nicholson, J., & McCusker, S. (2011). Developing Statistical Literacy in Students and Teachers. In C. Batanera, G. Burrill, & C. Reading (Eds.), Teaching Statistics in School Mathematics - Challenges for Teaching and Teacher Education: A Joint ICMI/IASE Study: The 18th ICMI Study (311-322). (18th ICMI Study). Springer Verlag

While statistical literacy is gaining much more recognition as something that all citizens need in order to function fully in modern society, there is much less agreement as to exactly what is meant by the term. This chapter discusses what statistica... Read More about Developing Statistical Literacy in Students and Teachers..

The Next Great Leap - From Official Data to Public Knowledge. (2009)
Conference Proceeding
Ridgway, J., Nicholson, J., & McCusker, S. (2009). The Next Great Leap - From Official Data to Public Knowledge. In P. Murphy (Ed.),

Many statistical agencies are attempting to inform citizens about the state of society, and current social changes. The literature on statistical literacy suggests that this might be an uphill struggle. Here, we use a press release from Ireland's Cen... Read More about The Next Great Leap - From Official Data to Public Knowledge..

One Small Step for a Pupil - One Giant Leap for Citizens. (2009)
Conference Proceeding
Nicholson, J., Ridgway, J., & McCusker, S. (2009). One Small Step for a Pupil - One Giant Leap for Citizens. In P. Murphy (Ed.),

OECD has launched its Global Project that aims to develop new measures of the nature and progress of societies and to increase the capability of citizens to understand and use this information. We contend that this needs to be accompanied by a develo... Read More about One Small Step for a Pupil - One Giant Leap for Citizens..