BMTS208
Teaching and Learning Data Handling

ECTS Value: 2 ECTS

Contact Hours: 10

Self Study Hours: 24

Assessment Hours: 16

 

Overall Objectives and Outcomes

This module prepares course participants in the pedagogy of data handling. It will familiarise them with literature about teaching and learning of data handling, particularly those dealing with the rationale for the inclusion of data handling in the mathematics curriculum. Based on such research evidence, the course participants will be given the opportunity to learn about students’ understandings of data handling concepts and how these could be utilised in favour of the teaching and learning of data handling and its connection to everyday life. In the process, they will become aware of common student difficulties in developing data handling skills and learn how these could be addressed. This will form a context within which teaching and assessment techniques for the teaching and learning of data handling will be studied and practised. 

By the end of this module, the learner will be able to: 

Competences

    • a)Cooperate with the mathematics head of department to determine readiness of school children to learn particular data handling concepts;
    • b)Contribute to the development of a school mathematics curriculum with particular emphasis on age- and ability-appropriate data handling learning outcomes;
    • c)Participate in the evaluation, review, and/or creation of school policies about assessment, particularly of and for students’ understanding of data handling concepts;
    • d)Create a set of student-friendly brief notes aimed at helping students’ understand and revise particular data handling concepts;
    • e)Create an exercise booklet aimed for students to work out data handling problems from, which will enable students to represent their knowledge and skills and to make a self-evaluation, and will also enable the teacher to make formative and summative assessments of those students’ knowledge;
    • f)Create concise student-centred lesson plans which help the teacher to present appropriate data handling learning opportunities.
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Knowledge

  • a)Identify the skills required for students to be ready to learn data handling;
  • b)List the reasons behind students’ difficulties to understand data handling activities;
  • c)Identify students’ misconceptions of data handling concepts;
  • d)Recall the data handling cycle which shows why and how data handling is required;
  • e)Identify specific mathematical learning difficulties e.g. ADHD and dyscalculia and the needs of students with such conditions to be able to develop data handling skills;
  • f)Identify key ethical principles related to data collection, management and interpretation including issues of privacy, bias, and responsible reporting.
  •  

Skills

    • a)Design a resource pack aimed at facilitating data handling lessons, which is created around students’ making sense of data handling while minimising student misconceptions;
    • b)Prepare age- and ability-appropriate data handling lesson plans, including lesson plans which present data handling in a real life setting;
    • c)Devise a set of activities aimed at assessing both summatively and formatively students’ data handling knowledge and skills.
    •  

Assessment Methods

This module will be assessed through: Lesson Plan, Presentation, Resource Pack

Suggested Readings

Core Reading List 

  1. HM Government. (2009). How to teach data handling across the curriculum. http://www.mathematicshed.com/uploads/1/2/5/7/12572836/how-to-teach-data-handling-across-the-curriculum1.pdf. 
  2. Robertson, J., Linklater, H., Farrell, K., Kanwal, J., Abaci, S., & Sowton, C. (2023). Teach Data Literacy: A Guide for Primary Teachers. https://dataschools.education/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Teach_Data_Literacy_A_Guide_For_Primary_Teachers.pdf. 
  3. Keiler, L. S. (2007). Students’ Explanations of their Data Handling: Implications for transfer of learning. International Journal of Science Education, 29(2), 151–172. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500690600560910. 

Supplementary Reading List 

  1. Shaughnessy, J.M., Garfield, J., Greer, B. (1996). Data Handling. In: Bishop, A.J., Clements, K., Keitel, C., Kilpatrick, J., Laborde, C. (eds) International Handbook of Mathematics Education. Kluwer International Handbooks of Education, vol 4. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1465-0_7. 
  2. Shaughnessy, J. M. (1992). Research in Probability and Statistics: Reflections and Directions. In D. Grouws (ed.), Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning, Mac-Millan Publishing, 465–494. 
  3. Keiler, L., & Woolnough, B. (2003). Students’ Motivations for Data Handling Choices and Behaviors: Their Explanations of Performance. Cell Biology Education, 2(1), 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.02-09-0043. 
  4. Pereira-Mendoza, L. (Ed.). (1993). Introducing Data Analysis in the Schools: Who Should Teach it and How?: Proceedings of the International Statistical Institute Round Table Conference, Lennoxville, Québec, Canada, August 10-14, 1992. International Statistical Institute with the financial assistance of UNESCO 
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