engleski

Pre-service teachers and statistics: an empirical study about attitudes and reasoning

In the paper a pre-service elementary teachers’ attitudes were examined using the Scale of Attitudes Towards Statistics and the analysis of results showed pre-service elementary teachers’ neutral attitude toward statistics. Their statistical reasoning in measures of center was also examined using several items from Quantitative Reasoning Quotient Test. This analysis showed that pre-service teachers’ statistical reasoning is inconsistent from item to item, or topic to topic, depending on the context of the problem. Results of both assessment instruments indicate that pre- service teachers lack awareness of the usefulness of statistics in everyday life and lack of experience in solving everyday problems. Since the attitudes have a significant effect on the learning process, we believe that not knowing where, why and when statistics can or will be used, influenced on pre-service elementary teachers’ statistical reasoning.

attitudes, reasoning ; pre-service teachers ; statistics ; measures of center

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