The Development of Statistical Literacy Skills in the Eighth Grade: Exploring the TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study) Data to Evaluate Student Learning in the United States

• In Event: Poster Session 15
  In Poster Session: Applied Statistical Analysis of Large-Scale Data

Abstract

In today’s changing world, numbers are a part of everyday life. If we expect our students to be able to make informed decisions about numbers, a basic understanding of statistics concepts becomes important skills to have. The ability to be able to understand the implications of statistics such as “For children 2-19 years of age, about 12% are at or above the 97th percentile for body mass index”, involves one being “statistically” literate. Many questions come to mind regarding how our students are progressing towards statistical literacy. This study seeks to investigate the relationship between student achievement in statistics concepts and factors at the student and classroom levels using the U.S. 8th grade TIMSS 2007 Data and Chance content domain items.

Author

• Jamie D. Mills, The University of Alabama