The Effect of Project Based Learning on the Statistical Literacy Levels of Student 8th Grade

Timur Koparan,Bülent Güven

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.3.3.145

Abstract

<p style="text-align:justify">This study examines the effect of project based learning on 8th grade students’ statistical literacy levels. A performance test was developed for this aim. Quasi-experimental research model was used in this article. In this context, the statistics were taught with traditional method in the control group and it was taught using project based learning in the intervention group. Statistics was given for four weeks according to pro ject based learning at intervention group. The performance test was applied to total 70 students as pre and post-test. Participants are from two different classes of a middle school in Trabzon. The data were analysed using Rasch measurement techniques. This measurement allowed both students’ performance and item difficulties to be measured using the same metric and placed on the same scale. All raw scores converted linear score in order to obtain equal interval scale. Acquired linear scores were compared. In the analysis of gained datum covariance analysis are used. According to gained results in pre-processing application there isn’t substantial difference between the achievements of intervention group and control group; but after processing between the achievements of intervention group and control group there is a substantial difference statistically in favor of intervention group. The results of the study revealed that the project based learning increased students’ statistical literacy levels in the intervention group.</p>

Highlights

Increasing recognition has been given over the last decade to the importance of statistical literacy
This shift in focus has played a role in distinguishing statistics education from the broader realm of mathematics education, in which statistics education finds many of its roots
The acceptable values lie between 0.77 and 1.3 (Keeves and Alagumalai, 1999) with an ideal value of 1.00. For both items (IMSQI = 1.01, s.d. =1.3; Infit t = .0) and persons (IMSQP = 1.04, s.d. =0.8; Infit t =.2) the overall fit was acceptable indicating that the performance tasks were composed of activities that worked together consistently to measure a single unidimensional construct, and that the students who responded to the task did so in ways that were coherent with the intentions of the task developers

Summary

Introduction

Increasing recognition has been given over the last decade to the importance of statistical literacy. The content of introductory statistics courses has changed dramatically, both because more sophisticated concepts are covered and because technological tools have helped to shift the focus from the minutiae of statistical computations to the more fundamental meaning of the statistics constructs being used (Kirk, 2007). This shift in focus has played a role in distinguishing statistics education from the broader realm of mathematics education, in which statistics education finds many of its roots.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion