ERIC Number: EJ1057855
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2015-Mar
Pages: 18
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1307-9298
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Available Date: N/A
Prospective Elementary and Secondary School Mathematics Teachers' Statistical Reasoning
Karatoprak, Rabia; Karagöz Akar, Gülseren; Börkan, Bengü
International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, v7 n2 p107-124 Mar 2015
This study investigated prospective elementary (PEMTs) and secondary (PSMTs) school mathematics teachers' statistical reasoning. The study began with the adaptation of the Statistical Reasoning Assessment (Garfield, 2003) test. Then, the test was administered to 82 PEMTs and 91 PSMTs in a metropolitan city of Turkey. Results showed that both groups were equally successful in understanding independence, and understanding importance of large samples. However, results from selecting appropriate measures of center together with the misconceptions assessing the same subscales showed that both groups selected mode rather than mean as an appropriate average. This suggested their lack of attention to the categorical and interval/ratio variables while examining data. Similarly, both groups were successful in interpreting and computing probability; however, they had equiprobability bias, law of small numbers and representativeness misconceptions. The results imply a change in some questions in the Statistical Reasoning Assessment test and that teacher training programs should include statistics courses focusing on studying characteristics of samples.
Descriptors: Preservice Teachers, Elementary School Teachers, Secondary School Teachers, Mathematical Logic, Statistics, Mathematical Concepts, Foreign Countries, Knowledge Level, Thinking Skills, Misconceptions, Probability, Scoring, Statistical Analysis, Coding
International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education. T&K Akademic Rosendalsvein 45, Oslo 1166, Norway. e-mail: iejee@iejee.com; Web site: http://www.iejee.com
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education; Elementary Education; Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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Identifiers - Location: Turkey
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