Authors
Eurivalda Santana – Universidade Estadual de Santa Cruz (UESC)
Irene Cazorla – UESC
Célia Barros Nunes – Universidade Estadual da Bahia (UNEB)
José Aires de Castro – Universidade Federal do Ceará (UFC)
Juscileide Braga de Castro – UFC
Dennys Leite Maia – Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)
Rodrigo Lacerda de Carvalho – Universidade Federal do Cariri (UFCA)
Abstract
The goal of this project is to understand how a formative intervention informs elementary and middle school math teachers’ professional development (their knowledge and teaching of statistics) and how it affects their students’ knowledge about statistical concepts. We focus on statistical literacy because of its importance and urgency; statistical literacy is a way to use statistics as a tool for understanding the world and the Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC) mandates the teaching of statistics from the elementary school years in Brazil starting in 2019-2020. Our formative intervention research study will be conducted in the context of university-school partnerships through professional learning communities (PLC) involving teachers and researchers from five public universities in three different states in Northeastern Brazil. We will analyze statistical content knowledge by means of two diagnostic instruments, one for teachers and another for students, and document teachers’ perceptions about their teaching practices, student learning, and equity issues. Additionally, data will be generated through the videotaping of professional learning community meetings and field journals documenting PLC meetings and teachers’ practices. Data analysis will engage quantitative and qualitative methods. In the PLC, teachers will design lessons based on the investigative cycle and implement them with students. After each implementation, teachers and researchers will collaboratively reflect on their practices and plan new lessons. We will be focusing on teachers' personal annotations about their practices and on students’ responses to their lessons. Quantitative data will include comparison of students’ performance via pre- and post-diagnostic instruments. Qualitative data analysis will involve the categorization of teachers’ statistical knowledge, teaching practice, and understanding of equitable student learning. The proposed research seeks to contribute to a model of professional development that at once attends to teacher and student learning.