Investigating Preservice Middle School Mathematics Teachers’ Competencies in Statistics and Probability in Terms of Various Variables

Abstract

In this study, probabilities of preservice middle school mathematics teachers' possession of four fundamental cognitive skills required for learning and teaching statistics and probability topics were examined by using the log-linear cognitive diagnostic model, which is one of the cognitive diagnostic models. Moreover, the probabilities of preservice teachers' possession of these skills were investigated according to gender, university ranking, and grade level variables. Hence, it was examined whether there was a significant relationship between the probabilities of having each skill and these variables. A Statistical Reasoning Test, which was developed by Arican and Kuzu in 2019, measured preservice teachers' possession of four critical skills was used in collecting the data. These four skills included representing and interpreting data, drawing inferences about populations based on samples, selecting and using appropriate statistical methods to analyze data, and understanding and applying basic concepts of probability. In the 2016-2017 academic year, the test was applied to 456 preservice teachers selected from four different universities in Turkey, and probabilities of their possession of each attribute were calculated. Later, the relationship between the preservice teachers' test scores and gender was examined by using the Mann-Whitney U test, and the relationship between their test scores and ranking of the attended university and grade level were examined using the Kruskal Wallis-H test. Although probabilities of the preservice teachers' possession of these four skills did not significantly differ according to gender, some significant differences were detected for university ranking and grade level variables.