Influence of culture on secondary school students' understanding of statistics: A Fijian perspective

Although we use statistical notions daily in making decisions, research in statistics education has focused mostly on formal statistics. Further, everyday culture may influence informal ideas of statistics. Yet, there appears to be minimal literature that deals with the educational implications of the role of culture. This paper will discuss the interaction between statistical cognition and culture, reporting on the effects of culture on secondary students’ statistical ideas. It will draw on examples from my work and that of a few others who have studied cultural influences on statistical ideas to explain how statistics is tied to cultural practices. The paper will consider the issues arising out of the literature and offer suggestions for meeting the challenges

Exploring Fijian high school students’ conceptions of averages

This paper focuses on part of a much larger study that explored form five (14 to 16 year-old) students’ ideas in statistics. A range of ideas was explored, including the students’ ideas about measures of centre and graphical representations. Students’ ideas about measures of centre were analysed and categories of responses identified. While students could compute mean and median, they were less competent with tasks that involved constructing meanings for averages. This could be due to an emphasis in the classroom on developing procedural knowledge or to linguistic and contextual problems. Some students used strategies based on prior school and everyday experiences. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for mathematics education

Cultural Influences in Probabilistic Thinking

Concerns about students' difficulties in statistics and probability and a lack of research in this area outside of western countries led to a case study which explored form five (14 to 16 year olds) students' ideas in this area. The study focussed on probability, descriptive statistics and graphical representations. This paper presents and discusses the ways in which students made sense of probability constructs (equally likely and proportional reasoning) obtained from the individual interviews. The findings were interpreted in relation to cultural perspective. The findings revealed that many of the students used strategies based on cultural experiences (beliefs, everyday and school experiences) and intuitive strategies. While the results of the study confirm a number of findings of other researchers, the findings go beyond those discussed in the literature. The use of beliefs, everyday and school experiences was considerably more common than that discussed in literature. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for teachers and researchers

How do Pasifika students reason about probability? Some findings from Fiji.

This paper reports on data from a large study which explored form five (14 to 16 years old) students' ideas in statistics. The study focused on descriptive statistics, graphical representations and probability. This paper discusses the ways in which students made sense of probability questions obtained from the individual interviews. The findings revealed that many of the students used strategies based on prior experiences (beliefs, cultural and school experiences) and intuitive strategies. From the analysis, I identified a four-category rubric that could be considered for describing how students construct meanings for statistics tasks. While the results of the study confirm a number of findings of other researchers, the findings go beyond those discussed in the literature. The use of beliefs and everyday and school experiences was considerably more common than that discussed in literature. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for teachers and researchers

Exploring pre-service teachers' understanding of statistical variation: Implications for teaching and research

Concerns about the importance of variation in statistics education and a lack of research in this topic led to a preliminary study which explored pre-service teachers’ ideas in this area. The teachers completed a written questionnaire about variation in sampling and distribution contexts. Responses were categorised in relation to a framework that identified levels of statistical thinking. The results suggest that while many of the students appeared to acknowledge variation, they were not able to provide adequate explanations. Although the pre-service teachers have had more real-life experiences involving statistics and have been involved in the study of statistical concepts at secondary school level, they still demonstrated the same misconceptions as those of younger students reported in research literature. While more students showed competence on the sampling question, they were less competent on the distribution task. This could be due to task format or contextual issues. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for further research and teaching

Probability from a socio-cultural perspective

There exists considerable and rich literature on students’ misconceptions about probability; less attention has been paid to the development of students’ probabilistic thinking in the classroom. Grounded in an analysis of the literature, this article offers a lesson sequence for developing students’ probabilistic understanding. In particular, a context familiar to teachers—exploring compound events that occur in a game of chance—is presented, and it is demonstrated how the context can be used to explore the relationship between experimental and theoretical probabilities in a classroom setting. The approach integrates both the content and the language of probability and is grounded in socio-cultural theory

Personal experiences and beliefs in probabilistic reasoning: Implications for research

Concerns about students' difficulties in statistical thinking led to a study which explored form five (14 to 16 year olds) students’ ideas in this area. The study focussed on probability, descriptive statistics and graphical representations. This paper presents and discusses the ways in which students made sense of probability concepts used in individual interviews. The findings revealed that many of the students used strategies based on beliefs, prior experiences (everyday and school) and intuitive strategies. From the analysis, I identified a four category rubric that could be considered for describing how students construct meanings for probability questions. While students showed competence with theoretical interpretation, they were less competent on tasks involving frequentist definition of probability. This could be due to instructional neglect of this viewpoint or linguistic problems. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for further research

Towards understanding models for statistical literacy: A literature review.

Despite statistical literacy being relatively new in statistics education research, it needs special attention as attempts are being made to enhance the teaching, learning and assessing of this strand. It is important that teachers are aware of the challenges of teaching this literacy. The growing importance of statistics in today's information world and conceptions and components of statistical literacy are outlined. Frameworks for developing statistical literacy from research literature are considered next. Strengths and weaknesses of the models are considered. Examples of tasks used in statistics education research are provided to explain the levels of thinking. The paper concludes with some implications for teaching and research

Students’ attitudes towards learning mathematics: Impact of teaching in a sporting context

This study investigated the impact on Year 10 students’ attitudes towards mathematics when learning mathematics in a sporting context. A closed ended, self-reported questionnaire with Likert type statements was used to collect data. Individual statements were analysed by comparing the percentage of students agreeing or disagreeing pre-teaching and post-teaching. In this study, students’ attitude comprised of their confidence, awareness of mathematics and engagement. This study suggests that when students learn in a sporting context, their confidence, seeing the importance of mathematics and engagement increases. The paper also considers implications for teachers, teacher educators and for scholars who are interested in further research

Students' perspectives on the nature of mathematics

This paper reports on one small component of a much larger study that explored the perspectives of students towards mathematics learning. Students were asked “What do you think maths is all about?” Some students responded in terms of mathematical content. Others commented on learning in general, or on problem-solving in particular. Some students talked about the usefulness of mathematics for everyday life. An overwhelming number of students answered the question by talking about the importance of mathematics for the future