With increased focus on data literacy and data science education in K-12, little is known about what makes a data set preferable for use by classroom teachers. Given that educational designers often privilege authenticity, the purpose of this study is to examine how teachers use features of data sets to determine their suitability for authentic…

Student emotions influence assessment task behaviour and performance but are difficult to study empirically. The study combined qualitative data from focus group interviews with 22 students and 4 teachers, with quantitative real-time learning analytics (facial expression, mouse click and keyboard strokes) to examine student emotional engagement in…

Statistics & data science are growing, rapidly evolving, and increasingly important for an informed citizenry in a data-saturated world. In this dissertation, I address two central questions: (1) who is taking statistics? and (2) what are statistics courses teaching? I estimate that 920,000 US students take statistics in high school each year,…

This article reports on a multi-method study of a high school course in data science, finding that students who take data science take more mathematics courses than those who do not, there are more under-represented students in data science than is typical for other advanced mathematics courses; that the students who take data science are more…

Data analysis and interpretation has always played a fundamental role in the scientific curricula of high school students. The spread of digitalization has further increased the number of learning environments whereby this topic can be effectively taught: as a matter of fact, the ever-growing diffusion of data science across diverse sectors of…

In this study, 82 middle and high school teachers engaged with the InSTEP online professional learning platform to develop their expertise in teaching data science and statistics. We investigated teachers' engagement within the platform, aspects of the platform that were most and least effective in building teachers' expertise, and the extent to…

Regional comprehensive universities offer accessible and diverse undergraduate educational programs, while grappling with funding cuts and affordability. The study's first research question underscores the enduring importance of factors such as student characteristics, pre-college characteristics, and financial situations. The findings highlight…

With the development of technology allowing for a rapid expansion of data science and machine learning in our everyday lives, a significant gap is forming in the global job market where the demand for qualified workers in these fields cannot be properly satisfied. This worrying trend calls for an immediate action in education, where these skills…

Tutorials for EXperimentalisT Interactive LEarning (TEXTILE) is an interactive semi-linear module-based curriculum for training students at various educational levels on data science methodologies currently utilized by research laboratories. We show how we developed our eleven module TEXTILE program to train 15 students from high school,…

As the use of plastics expands, microplastic concentrations increase in aquatic environments and negatively impact water, soil, and animals inhabiting these areas. Microplastic research frequently incorporates citizen science to assist in data collection and environmental education. These projects provide opportunities for greater societal…

Purpose: There is a need for precollege learning designs that empower youth to be epistemic agents in contexts that intersect burgeoning areas of computing, big data and social media. The purpose of this study is to explore how "sandbox" or open-inquiry data science with social media supports learning. Design/methodology/approach: This…

The divide between those who do and those who do not excel in mathematics is patterned in problematic ways. Women and people of color are typically underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) and other quantitative fields (ex. Finance) where mathematics plays gatekeeper. However, mathematics is not a subject these groups…

This case study describes an experience of using constructivist grounded theory to analyze data. The project investigated how high school students improved their approaches to learning mathematics. Over 4 months, students participated in processes which supported their learning while simultaneously generating data, including interactive writing,…