RUME 28
2026
Alexandria, Virginia
Examining a GTA’s Knowledge for Teaching Statistics via Scripting Tasks
Page: 1458
At a time when statistics and data science continue to grow in popularity, graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) are relied upon often to teach introductory undergraduate statistics courses. However, GTA preparation for these roles is inconsistent across institutions and little research has been done to understand GTAs’ knowledge for teaching statistics. Using a combination of the Technological, Pedagogical, and Content Knowledge model (TPACK; Mishra & Koehler, 2006), Ball et al.’s (2008) domains of mathematical knowledge for teaching, and Groth’s (2007) model of statistical knowledge for teaching, we explore two interviews with Norman, a GTA with prior experience working in an introductory statistics course, as he demonstrates his teaching practice in a series of scripting tasks. We highlight areas where the use of scripting tasks made Norman’s knowledge for teaching visible and discuss the potential for using scripting tasks to engage statistics GTAs in thinking about students’ alternative conceptions in statistics.