Characteristics of teaching statistics in STEM disciplines in Higher Education

This article reports on the progress of a research conducted at the national level that explores characteristics of teaching statistics in Higher Education. We present the results of a survey answered by 153 professors who teach statistics in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics majors in Higher Education. The survey included 52 items, 33 of which were designed on a Likert-type scale, that explore the American Statistical Association's recommendations for statistics instruction and assessment. The responses to these 52 items show that teachers teach statistics as a discipline to provide necessary information to solve real problems; however, it seems that they do not encourage their students to address these problems through statistical investigations. We conclude that this discrepancy leads to a view of statistics focused on the application of its methods and not on the investigation process needed to solve problems.