Consideration of a range of A and AS statistics syllabuses, both free-standing and contained within mathematics courses.

Background

The Review Group comprised Anne Hawkins, Neville Hunt, David Lennox and David Cassell. Between them, they have considered a range of A and AS statistics syllabuses, whether free-standing or contained within mathematics courses. (The group has not looked in depth at the statistics content of other disciplines such as geography, psychology, etc., although comments from some teachers of these subjects were solicited.)

The Group was aware that a number of changes are anticipated:

• The centralisation of assessment of 3 Boards, EdExcel, AQA and OCEAC.
• The likely reduction in the number of syllabuses, in response to government pressure. The move to modular packages at A and AS level facilitates this, but will probably mean great variation in content under a broad umbrella of a particular award title.
• SCAA has determined that what little statistics and probability there was in the core mathematics syllabus(es) will be removed. This could result in some students qualifying in A or AS level mathematics with no study of statistics or probability beyond GCSE.

The Review Group looked at syllabuses, examination papers and examiners’ reports, coursework requirements, and teachers’ preparedness to teach statistics and probability. Syllabuses considered were drawn from OCEAC, AEB, WJEC, EdExcel and NEAB. All Boards were offering a number of different syllabus combinations, and terminal or (linear) and modular structures. The review covered Mathematics, Further Mathematics, Statistics, various combinations including Statistics, and MEI Structured Mathematics.