Development Of Statistical Literacy Research Articles

Primary Pre-service Teachers’ Knowledge of the Concepts of Mean and Median

The development of statistical literacy has become a key outcome of mathematics curricula in various countries. The purpose of the study was to explore primary pre-service teachers’ (PSTs’) knowledge of aspects of measures of central tendency, which is a central concept in statistical literacy. The 183 PSTs’ written responses to four tasks were analysed in terms of demands elucidated by the Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) framework. The results showed that almost all the participants were able to carry out simple computations of the mean and median and were generally able to identify learner errors. However, they found it much harder to solve problems that required unpacking of the procedures and comparison of different measures of central tendency. They also struggled with providing suitable feedback based on learner errors. This study shows that primary school PSTs need more support in developing these MKT skills with respect to the concepts of the mean and median.

Implementation of Pedagogical Research into Statistical Courses to Develop Students’ Statistical Literacy

To participate fully in society, a person needs to critically evaluate statistical information. To be able to do this, it is appropriate to start developing the statistical literacy of young people in diverse levels in schools. In our article, we present a modified seminar on statistics for prospective humanities teachers. During the seminar, we planned a pedagogical experiment, the aim of which was to statistically verify the students’ own diagnostic competencies as prospective teachers of humanities. The statistical analysis confirmed that the implementation of real research into the course on statistics has a positive impact on the development of statistical literacy but does not change the attitude of students toward statistics and its use in the future teaching practice.

The development of statistical literacy among students: Analyzing messages in media articles with Gal's worry questions

AbstractReal‐world data are fundamental to modern teaching methodologies that aim to improve statistical knowledge and reasoning in students. Statistical information is encountered in everyday life, such as media articles and involves real‐world contexts. However, information could be biased or (mis)represented and students should be concerned about the validity of such articles, as well as the nature and trustworthiness of the evidence presented, while considering alternative interpretations of the findings conveyed to them. Statistics educators could make use of media articles to create opportunities for students to reflect on such (mis)representations and build statistical literacy. The purpose of this article is to show how information and data on the Omicron COVID‐19 variant have been (mis)represented in the media and by government entities. I also demonstrate how these examples may be utilized in the statistics classroom as they relate to concepts covered in most basic statistics courses.

Uma sequência de ensino para a formação de conceitos estatísticos nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental

Este artigo tem como objetivo analisar os elementos que potencializam o ensino de conceitos estatísticos por meio de uma sequência de ensino acerca do tema água potável, elaborada com as fases do Ciclo Investigativo, para os anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. Para alcançar esse objetivo, aportamo-nos no Letramento Estatístico proposto por Gal e na Teoria dos Campos Conceituais de Vergnaud. A sequência foi desenvolvida em uma turma de estudantes do 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola pública, localizada na região sul da Bahia, e toma como metodologia as cinco fases do Ciclo Investigativo proposto por Wild e Pfannkuch. A sequência foi planejada durante um processo formativo e desenvolvida pela professora em sua sala de aula. O resultado da pesquisa revela que foram potencializados os elementos do componente cognitivo: o conhecimento matemático, ou estatístico. E os elementos do componente atitudinal: postura crítica, crenças e atitudes, propostos por Gal para o desenvolvimento do Letramento Estatístico. Apontou, também, que a sequência proporcionou o aprendizado dos conceitos estatísticos, pelos estudantes, ao abordar um tema do cotidiano e ser desenvolvida segundo as fases do Ciclo Investigativo.

The Effect of Statistical Literacy on Response to Environmental Change

Abstract Background and Purpose: Due to constant social, technological and economic change, social actor, interacting with environment, is constantly faced with the need to acquire new knowledge and develop different competences – field of statistics included. The latter, with development of statistical literacy, enables one to reflectively analyse environment and respond to its changes. The aim of this paper is to determine response effectiveness of a better statistically literate social actor to environmental changes from perspective of different generations in Slovenia. Design/Methodology/Approach: Empirical data was collected through a survey questionnaire, processed and analysed using chosen descriptive and inferential statistical methods. 1239 respondents of all three Slovenian generations participated. Two research questions were asked, one relating to the whole sample and the other to three subsamples according to age groups and generations. Results: Based on whole sample of all three generations, it can be concluded that statistical literacy influences responsiveness of social actor to environmental changes. Survey results show that better statistically literate social actors are more completely and actively involved in working environment, personal and social life and respond to environmental changes more effectively. Conclusion: More attention, on urgency to develop statistical literacy individually in professional and everyday life, should be put on raising awareness of statistical knowledge importance to cope with environmental changes and improving supply and accessibility of formal and informal forms of statistical education for all generations. Research results will also contribute to better planning and implementation of statistics education at the level of educational institutions and teachers of all three generations.

Development of statistical literacy and critical thinking of high school students

Development of statistical literacy and critical thinking of high school students

An Investigation of the Predictors of Statistical Literacy in Second Language Acquisition

The use of statistics in second language acquisition (SLA) research has increased over the past 30-40 years and continues to increase in both complexity and sophistication (Gass, 2009; Loewen & Gass, 2009). The increased use of statistical procedures has drawn attention to the current state of statistical literacy among second language (L2) researchers. Statistical literacy is a critical skill to acquire on the parts of both the producers and consumers of L2 research. However, it is a relatively new research topic in the field. So, little is known regarding what factors play key roles in the development of statistical literacy. Therefore, this study attempted to investigate the predictors of statistical literacy in SLA. One hundred and twenty SLA doctoral students took a statistical background questionnaire and a discipline-specific statistics survey. A series of multiple regression analyses were conducted on the statistics survey data. The results indicated that number of statistics courses taken, quantitative research orientation, and self-training in statistics were the significant predictors of statistical literacy. In light of the findings of this study, several suggestions directed toward improving statistical literacy in the field of SLA were made.

Teachers’ Perceptions of Learners’ Proficiency in Statistical Literacy, Reasoning and Thinking

This paper explores teachers’ perceptions of their learners’ proficiency in statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking. Research in Statistics education has prompted a move away from the teaching of statistical skills, towards focusing on the development of statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking. The recent South African Grade 10–12 Mathematics curriculum change reflects this move. A specific challenge for South Africa is that teachers should understand the new intended outcomes of statistics when assessing learners. The participants (n = 66) included Grade 12 Mathematics teachers (females = 40%) from a district in the Free State, South Africa, selected through convenience sampling. A quantitative research approach was used by administering a 13-item Likert scale questionnaire with the Grade 12 Mathematics teachers. The responses were summarised descriptively as frequencies and percentages. The results indicated that two in three teachers perceived their learners to obtain acceptable proficiency in statistical literacy as defined by the literature. In contrast, only one in three teachers perceived their learners usually or almost always to be proficient in statistical reasoning and statistical thinking as defined by the literature. The findings of this study showed that about half of the Mathematics teachers do not see the connection between the action words in the curriculum, and the aspects of statistical reasoning and statistical thinking to be assessed. The large percentage of teachers uncertain about the proficiency of their learners in statistical reasoning and statistical thinking leads to the conclusion that teachers need to be provided with pre-service or in-service training strengthening their Subject Matter Knowledge and Pedagogical Content Knowledge related to the key intended outcomes of statistics assessment, that is, proficiency in statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking.

The state of the art in student engagement.

The state of the art in student engagement.

Comparing Technology-supported Teacher Education Curricular Models for Enhancing Statistical Content Knowledge

Recent calls have been made to enhance and extend the statistical experiences of K-12 students. However, to ensure that such goals are met, teachers also need to develop deep conceptual understanding and pedagogical content knowledge that are essential to statistical thinking and reasoning. In this regard, over the past two decades, leading thinkers and professional organizations had advocated that teaching and curricula should be focused and organized around problem solving. In this paper we describe three such technology-supported curricula—a project-based learning (PjBL) unit, problem-solving activities (PS) unit, and a model-eliciting activities (MEA) unit—that align with this perspective and discuss the ways in which they supported pre-service teachers’ engagement with elementary statistics concepts and technology. Our findings target two specific gaps in the literature—research on the use of technology in the development of statistical literacy and providing empirical support for advancing teachers’ statistical knowledge through engagement in the statistical investigation cycle.

What Should We Grow in Our School Garden to Sell at the Farmers’ Market? Initiating Statistical Literacy through Science and Mathematics Integration

ABSTRACT Statistical literacy is essential to scientific literacy, and the quest for such is best initiated in the elementary grades. The Next Generation Science Standards and the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics set forth practices (e.g., asking questions, using tools strategically to analyze and interpret data) and content (e.g., statistics) to guide the development of statistical literacy. This article portrays how statistical literacy can be initiated at the upper elementary level through integrated science–mathematics instruction in an authentic context: project-based learning focused on a farmers’ market project and school gardening. The shared classroom examples illustrate how to scaffold students’ understanding of statistical questions and develop their ability to formulate good survey questions. Science practices and science and mathematics content extend to analyzing, interpreting, and representing data as well as structure and function. This article helps teachers find an appropriate balance between offering students the freedom to explore on their own and providing them with guidance to achieve the goal of enhancing the statistical problem solving process. Student learning is extended through seed germination and related experimentation, raising produce, and vending at a local farmers’ market.

An investigation of prospective secondary mathematics teachers’ conceptual knowledge of and attitudes towards statistics

The development of statistical literacy is fast becoming the focus of a large part of mathematics instruction at primary, secondary and tertiary levels. This broadening of the mathematics curriculum to encompass a focus on statistics makes considerable demands on teachers. Most mathematics teachers acknowledge the practical importance of statistics and are willing to give more relevance to the teaching of statistics; however, many mathematics teachers do not consider themselves well prepared to teach statistics. The aims of this study were to investigate the conceptual understanding of statistics of prospective secondary mathematics teachers; the nature of their attitudes towards statistics and if there was a relationship between attitude towards statistics and conceptual understanding of statistics. Conceptual understanding was measured using a standard assessment instrument (comprehensive assessment of outcomes in a first statistics course) which allows comparison across other disciplines. Despite being very mathematically able and confident, the prospective mathematics teachers in this study do no better in the assessment than students from other (mostly non-quantitative) disciplines. This, perhaps, gives further evidence that statistical thinking is different from mathematical thinking and that a strong background in mathematics does not necessarily translate to statistical thinking. Conceptual knowledge was poor in some fundamental areas of statistics such as being able to properly describe the distribution of a quantitative variable and data production. The attitudes of these teachers towards statistics were measured using a widely used instrument (survey of attitudes towards statistics). The results indicate generally positive attitudes but an acknowledgement that statistics is not a subject quickly learned by everyone and requires discipline to learn. No strong correlation was found between attitudes and conceptual knowledge. It is recommended that in order to improve teacher knowledge, teacher education programmes must include tailored modules in statistics and highlight the differences between mathematical and statistical thinking.

The role of Statistical Education in Developing Graduate Qualities

����������������������������������� �� ����������� An increasing number of Universities are moving towards using general statements about the qualities of their graduates as a part of their policy and quality assurance frameworks. These general qualities (sometimes also referred to as attributes, abilities or capabilities) provide a statement about the outcomes that the Institution values in its graduates. These institutional statements are being increasingly used to guide the development of curriculum at both the program and course level. Much of the recent discussion about the development of the first course in Statistics has advocated a wider view of Statistics as a discipline, with particular emphasis on the development of statistical literacy and statistical problem solving skills and teaching and learning processes which emphasize collaborative, active learning approaches. Many of these contemporary directions for the introductory course are in good alignment with the general move towards outcomes based education and statements of graduate qualities. In this paper I will give a brief summary of key aspects of the graduate qualities approach to curriculum design and discuss some of the opportunities that this provides for the introductory Statistics course with particular emphasis on students from other disciplines. I will give examples from a course provided for approximately 120 students in their first undergraduate year of studying physiotherapy to illustrate how some of these opportunities might be incorporated into the teaching of the first course. The opportunity to teach students from a single discipline is relatively rare and so I will comment on the challenges that graduate qualities pose for large, multi-discipline first courses in Statistics. 2. Graduate Qualities and curriculum design There is a lot written by Universities on the outcomes they desire of their graduates. This is driven by a number of factors which include the need to

Instructional Design and the Development of Statistical Literacy

Sociologists generally accept the pivotal role of statistical analysis in the research process. In spite of this awareness, most instructors involved in teaching statistics have failed to come to terms with the rather awkward manner in which these skills are passed on to undergraduate students. Anumber of authors have discussed the instructional limitations posed by sociology students, who often lack either the mathematical background or the motivation to learn statistics (Blalock 1987; Broderick 1971; Leming 1979; Schacht and Stewart 1990). Even so, little attention has been focused on improving methods of instruction for statistical theory and application. In general terms, this paper discusses how to teach statistics in a way that defeats the stereotypes about mathematics in sociology. This point is of central importance because a sociology graduate who synthesizes a practical understanding of statistics with a genuine curiosity in studying social phenomena is truly an asset to the broader social community. The paper addresses three concerns: some of the obstacles encountered in teaching statistics to sociology students, the instructional implications of choosing different curriculum materials and teaching methods, and a proposed five-stage instructional model for introductory-level statistics.