Japanese and Thai Senior High School Mathematics Teachers’ Knowledge of Variability

Abstract

In this article, the conceptions of variability held by samples of Japanese and Thai senior high school mathematics teachers were identified, based on the framework proposed by Shaughnessy (2007), using a comparative survey study. From contrasting the results of the two groups, relative tendencies of insufficient statistical knowledge for variability were found in both samples, such as a tendency of Japanese teachers to overgeneralize equiprobability, whereas Thai teachers tended to overgeneralize estimation. Based on these findings, the use of well-known tasks from the research literature for this comparative study seems useful to clarify the relative tendencies and insufficiencies in teacher knowledge and conceptions regarding variability held by both groups. First published November 2018 at Statistics Education Research Journal Archives

Teachers’ Conceptions and Professional Knowledge of Variability From Their Interpretation of Histograms: The Case of Venezuelan in-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers

“…None of the respondents mentioned expecting to find a histogram with two peaks when matching Variable ⓓ to Histogram 5, since the sampling distribution of the height of a random group of male and female adults is bimodal. This is a noteworthy difference between the participants in this study and the Japanese secondary school teachers from the study conducted by Isoda et al (2018).…”

“…The conceptions of variability held by students at any school level have been exhaustively explored in the literature (e.g., Shaughnessy, 2007). Some research studies on the conceptions of variability held by in-service teachers have been also conducted, although to a lesser extent (e.g., Biehler et al, 2018;González, 2014aGonzález, , 2014cIsoda et al, 2018;Makar & Confrey, 2004;Peters, 2009). González (2014a) identified the following nine ways in which teachers conceptualize variability, based on his work with 53 Venezuelan in-service secondary school mathematics teachers in different statistical contexts, such as interpretation of histograms, comparison of distributions, and probabilistic and statistical experiments.…”

“…The time given to complete the questionnaire was 60 minutes. The questionnaire was an adaptation to Spanish of the instrument originally used by Isoda et al (2018) with secondary school mathematics teachers from Japan and Thailand. Item 1 (Figure 2) was modified to prompt respondents to provide the justification for the answers given, and based on the comments from the original developers, Item 2 (Figure 3) was added, which involves evaluating student responses to questions about graphical representations.…”

“…For any mathematics teacher, the specialized pedagogical content knowledge (i.e., a type of professional knowledge specific to the work of teaching, difficult to be articulated by other mathematically trained professionals who do not dedicate to teaching) is what distinguishes him or her from any other user of mathematics in their professional work, especially in the ability to determine the degree of correctness of all types of answers given by students (Ball et al, 2008). There is evidence worldwide (although still scarce in Latin American countries) that specialized content knowledge for teaching statistics is influenced by teachers' conceptions of variability, particularly in the context of evaluation of histograms (e.g., Bruno & Espinel, 2009;Peters, 2009;González, 2014aGonzález, , 2014bGonzález, , 2014cIsoda et al, 2018).…”

Developing Data Sense: Making Inferences From Variability in Tsunamis at Primary School

“…Some of these studies were focused on the use of technology for the dynamic exploration of data in order to promote a more qualitative understanding of statistical variability (Ekol & Sinclair, 2016;Inzunsa-Cazares, 2016). Other studies addressed the state of knowledge for teaching variability of both pre-and in-service teachers (Isoda et al, 2018;Lovett & Lee, 2018). In general, these studies highlighted the existence of different ways of considering variability, as well as the limited available research on how to design a lesson plan to determine the relevance of these particular ways of understanding the concept and how to promote them at school level.…”