Abstract:

Technology is considered a necessary tool in the teaching of statistics, given its ability to compute, producing graphs and simulations. Moreover, the use of the spreadsheet is included in the Spanish curricular guidelines related to correlation and regression, for both Science and Social Science students. In this paper we describe an experience aimed at training prospective high school teachers to teach correlation and regression using technology (in particular, the spreadsheet, real data and other tools available from the United Nations web server). The context where the workshop has been developed in the past three years is a Masters’ course in Mathematics Education, which is compulsory in Spain for those who want to apply for a teaching position in secondary or high school. The sample of prospective teachers taken in the workshop was made up of 23 (in 2013), 42 (in 2014) and 53 (in 2015) participants respectively. All these prospective teachers had previously finished a Bachelor in mathematics, statistics or Sciences/Engineering/Architecture; consequently, their mathematical knowledge was advanced. However, their statistical preparation was, in general, reduced to one statistics course with theoretical orientation and none of the participants had previously studied statistics education contents, since their only contact with statistics education was through the workshop.

The workshop design consisted of four (2-hour long) sessions where participants had access to computers and Internet. They were given the statistical project: “Life expectancy in different countries” to investigate the relationship between the life expectancy in different countries and different international indicators of human development. They were provided with an Excel file with the data set, containing data from nine variables from 193 countries. In order to cover all the statistical content in the curriculum, the prospective teachers were asked to interpret graphs and statistics, compare distributions, estimate and explain correlation (of Life Expectancy with different indicators) and find a regression model that fits the data (linear and non-linear models were used).

Although the Spanish curriculum neither includes elements of multivariate regression, nor multivariate data analysis, some elementary activities of multivariate data visualization using tools available on the United Nation web server were also included in the workshop, in order to reinforce the teachers’ statistical knowledge. As an optional (out of the classroom) activity, the participants were asked to choose and download other variables from the UN server, analyse the new data and prepare a report with their conclusions.

The activities and the use of social data proved to be successful to enrich different components of prospective teachers’ knowledge and also increased the participants’ interest towards statistics and its teaching, as well as their willingness to learn more and be better prepared to teach statistics in high school with real data and technology.

Keywords:

Technology, resources, teacher training, correlation, regression.