Open AccessINTRODUCTORY STATISTICS: PREPARING IN-SERVICE MIDDLE-LEVEL MATHEMATICS TEACHERS FOR CLASSROOM RESEARCH
Author(s) -
Jennifer L. Green,
Wendy Smith,
April T. Kerby,
Erin E. Blankenship,
Kendra K. Schmid,
Mary Alice Carlson
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
statistics education research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1570-1824
DOI - 10.52041/serj.v17i2.167
Subject(s) - mathematics education , statistics education , statistical thinking , statistical analysis , teacher education , professional development , cognitively guided instruction , sample (material) , psychology , statistical inference , process (computing) , school teachers , teaching method , computer science , statistics , pedagogy , mathematics , chemistry , chromatography , operating system
In this study, we examined how in-service middle-level mathematics teachers used statistics in their own classroom research. Using an embedded single-case design, we analyzed a purposefully selected sample of nine teachers’ classroom research papers, identifying several themes within each phase of the statistical problem solving process to summarize how teachers 1) planned studies and collected data, 2) analyzed data, and 3) interpreted results. The results illustrate the varying ways in which teachers used statistics to make data-based decisions about their classrooms, revealing teachers’ early development in their statistical thinking and suggesting that teachers’ required knowledge of statistics is multi-faceted, requiring both a pedagogical component and statistical knowledge for the teaching profession. Such findings have important implications for how we, as teacher educators, can best meet teachers’ professional needs.First published November 2018 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives