Attitudes Towards Statistics and Statistical Reasoning of Teachers in Training

Abstract

Background: Knowing the attitudes towards statistics and the statistical reasoning of teachers in training has been a topic of interest in research in statistical education because they reveal affective and cognitive characteristics that are part of the teaching and learning process of statistics. Objectives : To describe attitudes towards statistics and statistical reasoning about descriptive measures and probability of prospective primary education teachers within the framework of a course of their curriculum . Design : Case study with quantitative data and analysis. Instruments and participants: The Survey of Attitudes Towards Statistics (SATS) and the Statistical Reasoning Assessment (SRA) were applied at the beginning and end of the course. The sample consisted of 18 prospective teachers of a program of primary education of an official university of Colombia. Data collection and analysis : For the total scores in the two SATS and SRA applications, we obtained descriptive measurements, performed bivariate analyses, and applied non-parametric methods such as the Wilcoxon test. Results : We found a statistical differences in attitudes towards statistics between the pre-test and post-test. No statistical differences were found between the statistical reasoning scores. Conclusions : The prospective teachers presented a positive assessment of the usefulness of statistics and the role of statistics in the sociocultural environment and showed erroneous reasoning, mainly about probability.