ROLE OF CONTEXT IN STATISTICS: INTERPRETING SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL EVENTS

Abstract

Recent educational reforms include a vision of integrating reflective practice and contextual consideration into statistics education. Yet, statistics courses are rarely taught in a way that connects the data-enriched world to the educational experiences of learners. This deficiency highlights the need for statistics teaching courses to be aligned with the endeavors to equip pre-service mathematics teachers (PMTs) with skills needed in a data-enriched world. The data for the case study reported in this paper were collected from a newly developed statistics teaching course implemented at a university in Turkey. The aim of the research was to explore how seven PMTs used their context knowledge of data to examine statistical information critically. Researchers collected and analyzed videos of classroom activities, PMTs’ written work, and their written Google Blogger reflections. Results suggested the PMTs’ evaluation of examined historical events shifted from an emphasis on personal knowledge and experiences to the use of statistical reasoning and contextual knowledge. Context helped them understand the story reflected in the data, revise their initial perceptions or understanding of the events under examination, and pose further statistical inquiry questions.