The effects of statistical reasoning learning environment in developing secondary students' statistical reasoning

Abstract

Statistics is generally taught using conventional methods in most schools but such approach can only enhance students' procedural understanding and not conceptual understanding. As an alternative, a new model called Statistical Reasoning Learning Environment (SRLE) was examined to investigate the effects of SRLE in developing the statistical reasoning ability of tenth grade students. A quasi-experiment was designed in the form of pretest-posttest non-equivalent group. Total 67 students were chosen from two secondary schools in Johor, Malaysia. About 35 of them were assigned as experimental group that would receive treatment in SRLE while 32 of them were assigned as control group with no treatment given. Technology-based statistical reasoning tasks were utilized during the treatment. Meanwhile, the pretest and posttest were administered to all students in both groups before and after the treatment. The data obtained was analyzed using two-way mixed design ANOVA and one-way ANOVA. The findings showed that statistical reasoning ability of students who had been exposed to SRLE was better than students in the control group. There was no considerable discrepancy on the statistical reasoning ability of students who was exposed to SRLE with regard to the chosen four constructs. To conclude, SRLE has great positive impact on students' statistical reasoning ability in this study.