Abstract

The novel coronavirus has forced the world to interact with data visualizations in order to make decisions at the individual level that have, sometimes, grave consequences. As a result, the lack of statistical literacy among the general public, as well as organizations that have a responsibility to share accurate, clear, and timely information with the general public, has resulted in widespread (mis)representations and (mis)interpretations. In this article, we showcase examples of how data related to the COVID-19 pandemic has been (mis)represented in the media and by governmental agencies and discuss plausible reasons why it has been (mis)represented. We then build on these examples to draw connections to how they could be used to enhance statistics teaching and learning, especially as it relates to secondary and introductory tertiary statistics and quantitative reasoning coursework.

摘要

新型冠状病毒迫使世界与数据可视化进行交互，以便在个人层面做出有时会产生严重后果的决策。因此，公众以及有责任与公众分享准确、清晰和及时信息的组织缺乏统计知识，导致了广泛的（错误）陈述和（错误）解释。在本文中，我们展示了与 COVID-19 大流行相关的数据如何在媒体和政府机构中（错误）呈现的示例，并讨论了（错误）呈现数据的合理原因。然后，我们以这些示例为基础，将它们与如何用于增强统计教学和学习联系起来，