The importance of understanding large data, context, conventions and uncertainty in a pandemic

African Journal of Teacher Education and Development

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The importance of understanding large data, context, conventions and uncertainty in a pandemic
 
Creator Stephens, Max Kadijevich, Djordje M. Hill, Janelle C. Malola, Mayamiko
 
Subject mathematics; statistics; statistical literacy probability; statistics; statistical literacy; data visualisations; dashboards; teacher education; COVID-19; pandemic.
Description Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has provided rich data displays informing the public about the spread of infection, risks for certain population groups and the effectiveness of vaccines. These data sources offer opportunities for students and teachers to explore and discuss data of high relevance to their lives and their communities.Aim: This article argues that in the teaching of statistics and probability, greater attention needs to be given to understand the three key elements of statistical literacy, namely context, conventions and uncertainty. The article also identifies several key areas linking theory and practice.Setting: This article draws on different data displays using COVID-19-related websites internationally; nationally in Africa and South Africa; and locally in the State of Victoria in Australia.Methods: By investigating and analysing different data displays, the article shows the importance of assisting students to understand context, data conventions, uncertainty and risk–benefit to understand COVID-19 data. The article examines pertinent ‘frontier’ areas in the teaching of probability and statistics.Results: The article identifies important opportunities and challenges for the teaching of statistics in schools and for teacher education, including greater attention to frequentist expressions of probability, risk–benefit analysis, the importance of time series analyses and critical approaches to the evaluation of available data sets.Conclusion: For schools, greater attention needs to be given to the different conventions by which data are expressed, including the use of dynamic dashboard representations.Contribution: The article shows how available COVID-19 data can be used to enhance students’ statistical literacy and enrich teacher education.
 
Publisher AOSIS Publishing
 
Contributor The University of Melbourne, The research done by the second author was funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (Contract No. 451-03-68/2022-14/200018).
Date 2022-10-17
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — theoretical
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/ajoted.v1i1.7
 
Source African Journal of Teacher Education and Development; Vol 1, No 1 (2022); 11 pages 2958-0986
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://ajoted.org/index.php/ajoted/article/view/7/23 https://ajoted.org/index.php/ajoted/article/view/7/24 https://ajoted.org/index.php/ajoted/article/view/7/25 https://ajoted.org/index.php/ajoted/article/view/7/26
 
Coverage international; African; Australian 2019 to 2022 none
Rights Copyright (c) 2022 Max Stephens, Djordje M. Kadijevich, Janelle C. Hill, Mayamiko Malola https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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