Introducing teachers who use GUI-driven tools for the randomization test to code-driven tools

ABSTRACT

The advent of data science has led to statistics education researchers re-thinking and expanding their ideas about tools for teaching statistical modeling, such as the use of code-driven tools at the secondary school level. Methods for statistical inference, such as the randomization test, are typically taught within secondary school classrooms using GUI-driven tools. A teaching experiment was conducted, using a learning task designed to introduce teachers familiar with using GUI-driven tools for teaching the randomization test to code-driven tools. Our findings from this exploratory study indicate that the design principles and considerations used to create the learning task supported teachers’ introduction to code-driven tools and encouraged an integration of statistical and computational thinking.

KEYWORDS:

• Statistical modeling
• task design principles
• data science
• statistical thinking
• computational thinking
• secondary school teachers

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the three anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback on this paper.

Notes

1. Investigative cycle, interrogative cycle, fundamental types of thinking, dispositions.

2. Unplugged type activities, contextualizing activities, collaborative learning, developing computational thinking and scaffolding programming tasks.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Fergusson

Anna Fergusson is a Professional Teaching Fellow in the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research focuses on task and tool design for teaching statistical modeling and for supporting the integration of statistical and computational thinking.

Maxine Pfannkuch

Maxine Pfannkuch is an Honorary Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. Her research interests centre on enhancing students’ statistical thinking, reasoning and literacy, as well as conceptual understanding through the use of dynamic visualizations.