Critical Statistical Literacy with Preservice Teachers
Location
Gas Building #2
Session Information
Research into Practice session
Abstract of proposed session
I present the results of a semester long exploratory research study on the development of statistical thinking dispositions with preservice teachers in a mathematics methods class. The study builds on previous research which traced two in-service teachers’ work with middle school students in developing statistical literacy through the critical study of current events. In designing the mathematics methods course, I drew on pedagogies (noticing rounds and the interrogative cycle) used in the initial study that were tied to Wild and Pfannkuch’s (1999) model of statistical thinking. In addition, I built from the successes of the in-service teachers’ curriculum design with its focus on critical statistical literacy (Weiland, 2017) in supporting the preservice teachers to design units that address equity issues in the world and have relevance for middle grades students.
In developing the methods course, I considered both the pedagogies, knowledge, and practices that preservice teachers would need to build critical statistical literacy themselves, in order to develop lessons and units for their students. The preservice teachers participated in a series of three tasks: daily question development and discourse, worthwhile mathematical/statistical task design, and a critical statistical literacy project with associated understanding by design unit design. Given that the course was a mathematics methods course with a specific focus on statistics, an outcome of the research that relates to current conversations in the mathematics teacher education community was how the preservice teachers perceived the differences between mathematics and statistics and how they saw the tasks as relating to these perceptions.
Keywords
statistical literacy, preservice teachers, mathematics methods
Start Date
10-16-2019 1:30 PM
End Date
10-16-2019 1:55 PM
Recommended Citation
Cannon, Susan Ophelia, "Critical Statistical Literacy with Preservice Teachers" (2019). Georgia Association of Mathematics Teacher Educators (GAMTE) Annual Conference. 7.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/gamte/2019/2019/7
Critical Statistical Literacy with Preservice Teachers
Gas Building #2
I present the results of a semester long exploratory research study on the development of statistical thinking dispositions with preservice teachers in a mathematics methods class. The study builds on previous research which traced two in-service teachers’ work with middle school students in developing statistical literacy through the critical study of current events. In designing the mathematics methods course, I drew on pedagogies (noticing rounds and the interrogative cycle) used in the initial study that were tied to Wild and Pfannkuch’s (1999) model of statistical thinking. In addition, I built from the successes of the in-service teachers’ curriculum design with its focus on critical statistical literacy (Weiland, 2017) in supporting the preservice teachers to design units that address equity issues in the world and have relevance for middle grades students.
In developing the methods course, I considered both the pedagogies, knowledge, and practices that preservice teachers would need to build critical statistical literacy themselves, in order to develop lessons and units for their students. The preservice teachers participated in a series of three tasks: daily question development and discourse, worthwhile mathematical/statistical task design, and a critical statistical literacy project with associated understanding by design unit design. Given that the course was a mathematics methods course with a specific focus on statistics, an outcome of the research that relates to current conversations in the mathematics teacher education community was how the preservice teachers perceived the differences between mathematics and statistics and how they saw the tasks as relating to these perceptions.
