Enhancing Secondary Students’ Understanding of Descriptive Statistics Using Contextual and Socio-critical Modeling: The Case of West Shewa Zone, Ethiopia
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Date
2015-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The issue that this study addresses is the need for secondary students to work on relevant
non-routine statistical problems to enhance their understanding of descriptive statistics.
The purpose of this study is to explain how secondary students can enhance their
understanding of descriptive statistics using Modeling Approach and to compare the
amount of learning achieved using Modeling and Non-modeling Instructional
Approaches. The Modeling Approach integrated the Contextual and Socio-critical
Modeling Perspectives to teach a unit of descriptive statistics in secondary mathematics
curriculum. The leading research question set forth is, to what extent and how do high
school students enhance their understanding of descriptive statistics using a Modeling
Approach?
This transformative embedded mixed method study looked into three facets of students’
understanding of descriptive statistics: procedural, conceptual and critical. The study was
conducted at two high schools in urban district in West Shewa Zone, Ethiopia. For
comparisons, four Grade Nine sections with a total of 163 students were selected by
purposive sampling technique. An instrument called Teaching for Robust Understanding
in Mathematics (TRU Math) was used for observing Model-eliciting Activities (MEAs)
to capture the Modeling Approach classroom practice (Schoenfeld, 2013). Quality
Assurance Guide instrument was used to assess students’ models on MEAs (Lesh et al.,
iv
2000). Standard questions were used for achievement tests on procedural and conceptual
understanding of descriptive statistics. An attitude survey instrument was administered to
see students’ change of attitude towards statistics using Modeling Approach. Teams of
students did projects on their own themes for six weeks.
The quantitative data of the study was analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-tests and
ANOVA. The qualitative data of the study was analyzed using thematic and content
analyses. A statistically significant difference was found on conceptual understanding
achievement test with medium effect size using Modeling Approach, but no statistical
significant difference was found on procedural understanding achievement test except
female comparison. Significant statistical effects were observed for attitude scale and
subscales. Students enhanced their critical understanding of descriptive statistics doing
projects through data modeling. The findings of this study suggested students more likely
enhanced their understanding of descriptive statistics using Modeling Approach
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Keywords
Enhancing Secondary Students, Understanding of Descriptive Statistics Using Contextual