Developing Teachers’ Understanding of Statistics

Tim JacobbeUniversity of Floridajacobbe@coe.ufl.edu

DRL-1118168

Overview of Today’s Session

• Overview of the LOCUS Assessments• Teachers’ Performance on LOCUS• Some Materials for Teacher Development

LOCUS Assessment Project

• Principal Investigator: Tim Jacobbe, University of Florida

• Co-Principal Investigators– Bob delMas, University of Minnesota– Jeff Haberstroh, Educational Testing Service

(ETS)– Brad Hartlaub, Kenyon College

• External Evaluator: Jim Hammerman, TERC• Research Fellows: Catherine Case, Steven Foti,

Douglas Whitaker, University of Florida

An Amazing Team

• Advisory Board: David Miller, Dick Scheaffer, Mike Shaughnessy, Jane Watson

• Beginning/Intermediate Items (Grades 6-9): Chris Franklin, Brad Hartlaub, Gary Kader, Mary Lindquist, and Jerry Moreno

• Intermediate/Advanced Items (Grades 10-12): Bob delMas, Roxy Peck, Mike Perry, and Josh Tabor

LOCUS: Three Broad Goals• Develop instruments to assess levels of

statistical understanding as initially defined in the CCSS and the Guidelines for Assessment & Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) framework (Change the way statistics is assessed)

• Provide a characterization of the level of understanding of statistical topics

• Provide a tool for researchers and teachers to assess growth in statistical understanding

Evidence-Centered Design: 5 Layers

• Domain Analysis: GAISE, CCSS, learning trajectories from statistics education research

• Domain Modeling: Advisory Board provide feedback on mapping of CCSS and GAISE

• Conceptual Assessment Framework: Evidence Model derived from domain analysis

• Assessment Implementation: Develop and pilot assessment tasks

• Assessment Delivery: Final forms of assessments & dissemination of results

Design of Experiments Final Evidence Model

LEVEL DESCRIPTIONEVIDENCE

STATEMENT WORK PRODUCTSA.2.3 Students understand how

to conduct simple experiments with assignment of treatments.

Students demonstrate the understanding that an experiment can be designed to measure the effect of treatments …

… Students should be able to identify the experimental units, treatment groups, response variable and other variables.

B.2.2 Students understand how to design and conduct comparative experiments and begin to use random assignment.

Students … demonstrate correct methods for…comparison of treatments. Students randomly assign treatments to experimental units.

… Students should understand that causal claims may be possible if experiments are conducted with random assignment.

C.2.2 Students understand what constitutes good practice in conducting an experiment.

Students identify, discuss, and explain best statistical practice … identification of the statistical question; variables; and the random assignment of treatments to the experimental units.

… students design or critique an experimental design. Aspects of statistical design are included in the study … to allow for the possibility of making causal conclusions about differences between groups.

Three Levels from GAISE Framework

• Ideally (Franklin & Mewborn, 2006)– A: Elementary school grades

– B: Middle school grades

– C: High school

• Two levels of Assessment: – Beginning and Intermediate (Levels A and B)– Intermediate and Advanced (Levels B and C)

Approximate Emphasis on Practice and Process Components

of Statistical Problem SolvingProcess Component Beginning/Intermediate Intermediate/Advanced

Formulating Questions 10-15% 15-20%

Collecting Data 25-30% 20-25%

Analyzing Data 30-35% 25-30%

Interpreting Data 25-30% 30-35%

Teachers’ Performance

Process ComponentPreservice Teachers

(n=268)Inservice Teachers

(n=493)

Formulating Questions 84% 88%

Collecting Data 70% 76%

Analyzing Data 66% 69%

Interpreting Data 64% 71%

Overall 69% 74%

Teachers’ vs. Students’ Performance

Process Component

Preservice Teachers (n=268)

Inservice Teachers (n=493)

AP Statistcs (n=936)

Formulating Questions

84% 88% 78%

Collecting Data 70% 76% 67%

Analyzing Data 66% 69% 61%

Interpreting Data 64% 71% 56%

Overall 69% 74% 63%

Formulate Questions

Collect Data

Analyze Data

Interpret Data

What Should We Do?

• Teacher performance is encouraging considering there has been limited training

• LOCUS Measures Statistical Understanding Expected of STUDENTS in grades 6-12

ASA’s Statistics Education of Teachers

ASA and NCTM K-12 Resources

ASA K-12 Resources

Some Ongoing Projects

• NSF-Funded CAREER: Investigating Middle and Secondary Mathematics Teachers” Transformative Learning of Statistics within Professional Development (PI: Sue Peters, University of Louisville)

• MOOC-Ed Teaching Statistics Through Data Investigations http://mooc-ed.org/tsdi (PI: Hollylynne S. Lee)

• Project-SET: Statistics Education for Teachers (PI: Anna Bargagliotti)

https://locus.statisticseducation.org

Register for an Account

Next Step for LOCUS

• Website aimed at professional development of teachers– Commentaries– Sample items– Evidence Model

• Continue to influence statistics items on high-stakes assessments

Thank You for Participating (or Watching)

Tim Jacobbe, jacobbe@coe.ufl.edu

DRL-1118168