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Introducing the practice of statistics: Are we environmentally friendly?
Citation
Watson, JM and English, LD, Introducing the practice of statistics: Are we environmentally friendly?, Mathematics Education Research Journal, 27, (4) pp. 585-613. ISSN 1033-2170 (2015) [Refereed Article]
Copyright Statement
Copyright 2015 Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia, Inc.
DOI: doi:10.1007/s13394-015-0153-z
Abstract
The practice of statistics is the focus of the world in which professional
statisticians live. To understand meaningfully what this practice is about,
students need to engage in it themselves. Acknowledging the limitations of a
genuine classroom setting, this study attempted to expose four classes of year
5 students (n=91) to an authentic experience of the practice of statistics.
Setting an overall context of people’s habits that are considered environmentally
friendly, the students sampled their class and set criteria for being
environmentally friendly based on questions from the Australian Bureau of
Statistics CensusAtSchool site. They then analysed the data and made decisions,
acknowledging their degree of certainty, about three populations based
on their criteria: their class, year 5 students in their school and year 5 students
in Australia. The next step was to collect a random sample the size of their
class from an Australian Bureau of Statistics ‘population’, analyse it and again
make a decision about Australian year 5 students. At the end, they suggested
what further research they might do. The analysis of students’ responses gives
insight into primary students’ capacity to appreciate and understand decisionmaking,
and to participate in the practice of statistics, a topic that has received
very little attention in the literature. Based on the total possible score of 23
from student workbook entries, 80 % of students achieved at least a score of
11.
Item Details
| Item Type: | Refereed Article |
|---|---|
| Keywords: | elementary school, graphical representations, measurement, statistical thinking, variation |
| Research Division: | Education |
| Research Group: | Curriculum and Pedagogy |
| Research Field: | Mathematics and Numeracy Curriculum and Pedagogy |
| Objective Division: | Education and Training |
| Objective Group: | Learner and Learning |
| Objective Field: | Learner and Learning Achievement |
| Author: | Watson, JM (Professor Jane Watson) |
| ID Code: | 103428 |
| Year Published: | 2015 |
| Funding Support: | Australian Research Council (DP120100158) |
| Web of Science® Times Cited: | 3 |
| Deposited By: | Faculty of Education |
| Deposited On: | 2015-10-09 |
| Last Modified: | 2017-11-10 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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