Middle school mathematics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge in relation to statistical reasoning

Abstract

To investigate middle school mathematics teachers' pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) with regard to statistical reasoning, an interview protocol was developed and used with nine teachers. This paper focuses on one of the problems in this interview protocol (Basketball problem) to illustrate teachers PCK in relation to four components: big ideas, student responses, student difficulties, and instructional intervention. Our analyses showed that levels of teachers' PCK varied in each component. Teachers had difficulties mostly in explaining student difficulties, developing instruction intervention strategies and distinguishing appropriate and inappropriate student reasoning.