Öğrencilerin İstatistiksel Okuryazarlıklarının Kendi Ürettikleri Örnekler Bağlamında İncelenmesi

Abstract

As a 21st-century skill, the cultivation of data and statistical literacy in individuals is becoming increasingly important in educational approaches and curricula of societies. In this era where information is constantly changing, the learning profiles of learners are also evolving, and students are now expected to construct knowledge rather than merely absorb the information presented to them. The generation of examples, which plays a crucial role in the conceptualization of mathematical objects, should be produced by the learners themselves rather than being provided by an authority. This makes the learner more active in the learning process and helps reveal their existing schemas related to mathematical objects. The aim of this study is to describe middle school students' statistical literacy in the context of examples they have generated themselves. Therefore, a survey model was chosen for the study. The research was conducted during the 2022-2023 academic year, and the study group consisted of 8th-grade students from a public middle school in Ankara. Data were collected using the Statistical Literacy Inventory-1 developed by the researcher, the Statistical Literacy Inventory-2 based on generating examples, and the clinical interview method. The findings obtained from both inventories were analyzed using the Rasch Measurement Model within the theoretical framework of the statistical literacy hierarchy. It was found that students' statistical literacy was at the idiosyncratic, informal and inconsistent (first, second, third levels) levels in both inventories, that they found it more challenging to respond to the example-generation-based inventory, that they had difficulty perceiving statistics as mathematics, and that they made subjective judgments instead of making inferences from data. It was concluded that the data source and context affect students' decision-making skills, and thus it is important to consider data literacy as a component of statistical literacy.