Interna'onal Conference on Research in Educa'on & Science (ICRES) 19 – 22 May 2016, Bodrum, Turkey
INSIGHTS IN THE IMPLEMENTATION OF A NEW SUBJECT IN STATISTICS EDUCATION Henny Sunartie Tiga1, Masitah Shahrill2, Abby Tan3, Mar Aswandi Mahadi2, Hajah Zurina Haji Harun4 1 Paduka
Seri Begawan Sultan Science College, Ministry of Education, Brunei Darussalam 2 Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Education, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam 3 Faculty of Science, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Brunei Darussalam 4 Ministry of Education, Brunei Darussalam
Introduction • In Brunei Darussalam, statistics education is integrated in the national mathematics curriculum. • However, it is perceived to be less important compared to other mathematical contents such as algebra and geometry (Ang & Shahrill, 2014; Ong & Shahrill 2014; Sulaiman & Shahrill, 2014, 2015).
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Introduction In 2011, a proposal was forwarded to the MOE Brunei to introduce Statistics syllabus code 4040 to be offered to Years 9 and 10 students in School X. In 2012, The MOE Brunei approved the proposal.
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Aims u To
provide useful guidelines for other secondary schools who are interested to offer Statistics 4040 to their students.
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provide educators with useful information regarding the challenges in terms of teaching and learning Statistics 4040.
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expand the platform for other researchers to expand the research with regard to Statistics 4040.
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Research Questions 1) What are the students’ attitudes towards Statistics 4040? 2) What are the challenges and limitations faced by students when learning Statistics 4040?
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Literature Review • The growing importance of statistics education has been recognised as an integral part of the educational curriculum. • Ben-Zvi and Garfield (2005) reported that statistical literacy is a key ability expected of citizens in the 21st Century societies, and is often displayed as an integral outcome of schooling.
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Literature Review • The introduction of Statistics 4040 may be regarded as an initiative towards achieving statistical literacy in Bruneian students and eventually in the society of Brunei Darussalam. • Watson (2013) stated that being able to provide good evidence-based arguments and evaluate data critically are desirable life-skills. Thus, it is imperative that students should learn statistics.
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What is Statistics 4040? • According to the CIE, the syllabus of Statistics 4040 enables learners to acquire knowledge of basic statistical ideas, methods and terminology. • It enables learners to represent and use statistical data in graphical, diagram and tabular forms; interpret statistical statements, calculations and diagrams as well as perform statistical calculations accurately and acquire knowledge of elementary ideas in probability (CIE, 2013). 8
Methodology • Quantitative and qualitative method. • Conducted in one of the Secondary Schools in Brunei. • Year 9: n = 33 Students & Year 10: n = 9 Students. • Data collected through: Ø
Survey of Attitudes Toward Statistics (SATS) (Schau et al., 1995; Schau & Emmioglu, 2012) Note: The permission to use the SATS for this study was granted by Dr. Candace Schau herself, and she holds the copyright for SATS.
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Focus Group Interviews
Results and Discussions What are the students’ attitudes towards Statistics 4040? Mixed feelings regarding statistics although encouragingly the students are generally keen to learn. At least half of the sample enjoyed taking statistics classes. 47.6% of the students stated that they did not feel insecure when they tackle statistics problems. Overall, students are confident and found learning statistics to be worthwhile. 10
Results and Discussions What are the challenges and limitations faced by students when learning Statistics 4040?
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Lack of resources.
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No proper textbooks provided.
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Online resources were helpful as it did not show step-bystep solutions.
Conclusions • Although, most of the results are inconclusive, there is significant evidence to show that most students find statistics a useful subject and are generally willing to learn. • Finding the relevant resources is a major problem. • A bigger sample size is required in the future to avoid inconclusive findings
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References
(used in this presentation only) ² Ang, L. H., & Shahrill, M. (2014). Identifying students’ specific misconceptions in learning probability. International Journal of Probability and Statistics, 3(2), 23-29. ² Ben-Zvi, D., & Garfield, J. (Eds.). (2005). The challenge of developing statistical literacy, reasoning and thinking. Netherlands: Springer. ² Cambridge International Examinations Board (CIE) (2013). Cambridge O Level Statistics Syllabus code 4040. Cambridge International Examinations Board, University of Cambridge: United Kingdom. ² Ong, J. K., & Shahrill, M. (2014). Investigating students’ competence level in secondary school statistics. In F. Uslu (Ed.), Abstracts and Proceedings of the International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities (pp. 912-922). Istanbul, Turkey: International Organization Center of Academic Research, OCERINT. ² Schau, C., & Emmioglu, E. (2012). Do introductory statistics courses in the United States improve students’ attitudes? Statistics Education Research Journal, 11(2), 86-94. ² Schau, C., Stevens, J., Dauphinee, T., & Del Vecchio, A. (1995). The development and validation of the survey of attitudes toward statistics. Educational & Psychological Measurement, 55(5), 868-876. ² Sulaiman, N. D., & Shahrill, M. (2014). The impact of collaboration in the learning of secondary school statistics. Paper presented at the International Academic Forum (IAFOR) Inaugural North American Conference Series for North American Conference on Education (NACE2014), “Transforming and Changing Education: Borderlands of Becoming and Belonging”, Providence, Rhode Island, United States, 25-28 September 2014. ² Sulaiman, N. D., & Shahrill, M. (2015). Engaging collaborative learning to develop students’ skills of the 21st century. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(4), 544-552. ² Watson, J. M. (2013). Statistical literacy at school: Growth and goals. New Jersey: Routledge. 13
U O Y K N A H T Ms. Henny Sunartie Tiga (
[email protected]) Dr. Masitah Shahrill (
[email protected]) Dr. Abby Tan (
[email protected]) Mr. Mar Aswandi Mahadi (
[email protected]) Dr. Hajah Zurina Haji Harun (
[email protected])
