An examination of descriptive statistical knowledge of 12th-grade secondary school students - comparing and analysing their answers to closed and open questions

• Published in: Teaching Mathematics and Computer Science Vol. 21; no. 1; pp. 63 - 81
• Main Author: Jánvári, Zsuzsanna
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Debrecen University of Debrecen 28.08.2023
• Subjects: Classrooms; Core curriculum; Data Analysis; Grade 12; Questions; Reading comprehension; Reading Skills; Secondary Education; Secondary School Students; Statistics Education; Student Attitudes; Students; Task complexity; Teaching Methods; Trends; Hungary
• ISSN: 1589-7389; 2676-8364
• DOI: 10.5485/TMCS.2023.0549

In this article, we examine the conceptual knowledge of 12th-grade students in the field of descriptive statistics (hereafter statistics), how their knowledge is aligned with the output requirements, and how they can apply their conceptual knowledge in terms of means, graphs, and dispersion indicators. What is the proportion and the result of their answers to (semi-)open questions for which they have the necessary conceptual knowledge, but which they encounter less frequently (or not at all) in the classroom and during questioning? In spring 2020, before the outbreak of the pandemic in Hungary, a traditional-classroom, “paper-based” survey was conducted with 159 graduating students and their teachers from 3 secondary schools. According to the results of the survey, the majority of students have no difficulties in solving the type of tasks included in the final exam. Solving more complex, open-ended tasks with longer texts is more challenging, despite having all the tools to solve them, based on their conceptual knowledge and comprehension skills. A valuable supplement to the analysis and interpretation of the results is the student attitudes test, also included in the questionnaire. Subject Classification: 97K40, 97-11, 97D60