Presenter(s)

Megan R. Brown

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Description

This summer at Sam Houston State University, I, along with four coresearchers, investigated the nature and extent of the statistical content in U.S. textbooks for students in grades 1-5 by examining five textbook series. Using the Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE) Report, we systematically coded statistics tasks into four phases: Formulate a Question, Collect Data, Analyze Data, and Interpret Results. The Analyze Data phase was divided into four categories: Read a Display, Perform a Mathematical Calculation, Construct a Display, and Use Other Statistical Reasoning. We analyzed our results by looking at the location of the statistics tasks, the distribution of the phases, and the types of displays that appeared in each book. The textbooks were then checked to see which Common Core State Standards (CCSS) and Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) standards were met. Our results suggest that the distribution of statistics tasks depended on the series, and we found that our sample of textbooks did not place equal emphasis on the different phases of the statistical process. Textbooks predominantly focus on analyzing data, which may inadvertently restrict opportunities for students to generate and interpret data. Our research was supervised by Dr. Dusty Jones (Sam Houston State University) and funded by NSF grant DMS-1262897.

Publication Date

4-9-2015

Project Designation

Independent Research

Primary Advisor

Constance R. Mathes

Primary Advisor's Department

Teacher Education

Keywords

Stander Symposium project

Disciplines

Arts and Humanities | Business | Education | Engineering | Life Sciences | Medicine and Health Sciences | Physical Sciences and Mathematics | Social and Behavioral Sciences

Statistics Content of Elementary Mathematics Textbooks

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