Work

Statistical Literacy in the Middle School: The Relationship between Interest, Self-Efficacy and Prior Mathematics Achievement.

Year: 2010

Type: article

Abstract: This paper examines the relationship between key predictors of middle school students' interest for statistical literacy, including their self-efficacy for statistical literacy and their prior mathematics achievement.Given the lack of research in the statistical literacy domain, a review of the mathematics education literature confirms the importance of self-efficacy and achievement in predicting interest and describes the nature of their influence on interest.The paper then reports on an empirical study involving a sample of 438 Australian middle school students from 8 schools across 3 states.Data from this study are used in a series of statistical models to confirm the influence of identified predictors and to study their inter-relationship.Results from the study suggest that the influence of prior achievement on interest is completely mediated by self-efficacy.In addition to this, the relationship between interest and self-efficacy appears to be quadratic, in that students with high levels of self-efficacy may not have corresponding high levels of interest.Implications for this research are then discussed.

Source: eCite Digital Repository (University of Tasmania)

Authors: Colin Carmichael, Rosemary Callingham, Ian Hay, Jane Watson

Institution: University of Tasmania

Language: English

Topic: Statistics Education and Methodologies

Subfield: Statistics and Probability

Field: Mathematics

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Quality education

Open Access status: green

Funder: Australian Research Council

Award: Longitudinal change for teachers and students in relation to professional learning in statistics education