Technology Adoption for Statistics Teaching:

An Approach to Enhance Learning

Lessons Learned from Building an Investigative Environment

Leandro Mendonça do Nascimento

, Carla Delgado

, Mônica Ferreira da Silva

Victor Prado

and Lorena Pires Griõn

Graduate Program in Informatics, PPGI/Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

lorenagrion@gmail.com

Keywords: Technology Adoption, Geogebra, Smartphones, Google Forms, Statistics Learning.

Abstract: Active learning is one of Brazil’s goals for education, and it encourages and develops students new skills and

competencies for a more complete and meaningful education. The didactic sequence that we carried out

promoted the articulation of statistical knowledge with the use of techniques of data collection and systematic

analysis through a technological device. According to the itinerary proposed by this study, the students built

the research in groups, collected the data with Google Forms among their peers, using their smartphones, and

then analyzed the data obtained using an Applet developed in Geogebra. Thus, in this paper, when we present

the activity, its elaboration process, its execution, and its results, we aim to collaborate with teachers and

future teachers who want to adopt technology in their classrooms, especially if they want to build empirical

research.

1 INTRODUCTION

The publication Brasil (2018) of the Brazilian

Common National Curriculum Base (BNCC) placed

Statistics as the guiding axis within Mathematics

Teaching, listing, for all years, subjects of Statistics

to be taught by teachers of Mathematics.

The general objective of this work is to evaluate

the impact of the adoption of technology, as a way to

encourage the protagonism of students to work with

Statistics. This type of approach provides teachers in

activity or training with an example on the use of

technological resources for the development of

didactic proposals based on active learning for the

classroom.

This work aims to present math teachers with

possible means to create an investigative environment

for their students, through technology, in order to

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6917-4274

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3570-4465

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0951-6612

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3960-7195

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2810-2415

develop specific skills present in the BNCC. In

particular, statistical concepts present in the BNCC

provide the opportunity for systematic work with

data, which is crucial in our days.

The specific objectives are: (1) To execute the

work in classroom in conformity with the BNCC

proposal. (2) to demystify the use of these resources

as practical teaching toolsaids for everyday school

life; (3) to present and discuss the construction of

proposals for meaningful teaching of statistics; (4) to

present and discuss proposals for the use of

technology for active learning; (5) to discuss bullying

inside school.

Reflecting the influences and transformations

through which the processes of acquisition and

representation of knowledge pass in the face of the

growing volume of stored data and the evolution of

technological tools to give access to this amount of

332

Mendonça do Nascimento, L., Delgado, C., Ferreira da Silva, M., Prado, V. and Pires Griõn, L.

Technology Adoption for Statistics Teaching: An Approach to Enhance Learning Lessons Learned from Building an Investigative Environment.

DOI: 10.5220/0010493503320337

In Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2021) - Volume 2, pages 332-337

ISBN: 978-989-758-502-9

information, the elementary instrumentation of

students so that they can participate in this world, is

not only instigating, but essential. This proposal aims

to demystify, for teachers already working and for

those in training, not only the teaching of statistics in

the final years of elementary school but also the

technological support that is available to students to

effectively appropriate this knowledge.

We believe that teaching and learning processes

should be presented to students in a collaborative and

investigative way and, for this, the teacher needs to

break with prerogatives acquired throughout their

development process, as stated by Moraes (1996, p.

59):

“the great majority of teachers still privilege the

old way they were taught, reinforcing the old

teaching, moving the learner away from the

process of knowledge construction”.

In this sense, we point out that by using

technology for teaching, especially through dynamic

software, we create a channel of communication with

our student, whose use increases the student's

engagement and interest, as Romero assures:

“Technology, specifically educational software,

provides opportunities for motivation and

appropriation of the content studied in the

classroom, since in many public and private

schools, teachers use didactic resources such as

blackboard and chalk to teach their classes, this is

one of the many problems that cause the growth

of unsatisfactory quality of teaching, especially in

the state network” (Romero, 2006, Apud

Cavalcante, 2010, p. 3).

Corroborating the study above, the document

Reflections on the contents of probability and

statistics at school in Brazil, published on the website

of the Brazilian Statistics Association (ABE, 2016, p.

1) suggests that the student should be involved with

the entire process, from the choice of research topic,

data collection, to interpretation and discussion of

results, providing an investigative environment.

Among the skills present in the BNCC, we

address the concept of probability, which we can see

in Brazil (2018, p. 315):

“Calculate the probability of events, based on the

construction of the sample space, using the

multiplicative principle, and recognize that the

sum of the probabilities of all elements of the

sample space is equal to 1”.

Still in this perspective, we worked on basic

concepts of Statistics present in the BNCC in Brazil

(2018, p. 315):

“To obtain the values of central tendency

measures of a statistical survey (average, mode

and median) with the understanding of its

meanings and relate them to the dispersion of data

indicated by the amplitude”.

In this way, we chose to work these concepts

using technology and built our applet. It is possible to

build very interesting didactic sequences using the

Geogebra materials, available in the software

platform that are made available for free by teachers

from all over the world for teachers who wish to use

technology in their classroom.

2 METHODOLOGY

To answer the research question we proposed a set of

activities to be done with the students. The proposed

activities were structured in 4 stages:

1. Question preparation

2. Peer Interviews

3. Data Analysis

4. Results discussion

This experiment was developed in an eighth grade

class at the Dulce Trindade Braga school, of the

network of the municipality of Duque de Caxias

within the state of Rio de Janeiro and aimed to

provide students with an environment for

investigating the concepts of statistics in which the

data collection was also idealized and performed by

the students.

At school, the experiment allows students to

engage with the content being addressed by the

teacher, formulate their hypotheses, research

solutions, analyze results, as well as actively

participate with their peers in the teaching-learning

process (Almeida & Malheiro, 2019).

According to Dias & Silva (2010, p. 49) we have

that: “in the experiment, the researcher elaborates the

research scenario, defines the variables and the

subjects to be analyzed, which are divided into

experimental and control”.

This experiment was carried out without the

control group for ethical reasons so that we did not

include any students in this process.

Technology Adoption for Statistics Teaching: An Approach to Enhance Learning Lessons Learned from Building an Investigative

Environment

333

3 BUILDING AN

INVESTIGATIVE

ENVIRONMENT IN

CLASSROOM

The goal is to prepare students to use technological

tools to produce their own surveys, and also, to

practice the statistical concepts listed in BNCC

3.1 Stage 1: Question Preparation

The statistics concepts selected for this research were

the measures of central tendency and dispersion; the

investigated variables were classified as quantitative

variables.

The students who volunteered used the teacher's

computer to build the form and used their

smartphones in two stages, namely: data collection

and analysis.

We divided the 35 students from class 801 into 7

groups with 5 students. They had the task of

elaborating a question to compose the research that

we would carry out to the students of the same shift

with the theme: School bullying. The theme was

chosen to compose a series of projects of the school

because of a meeting held by the institution's college.

It was up to the teacher to welcome the questions

proposed by the groups, to make an initial filter so

that no question would cause embarrassment to the

respondents. After this treatment, we forwarded them

to the pedagogical coordination for a second filter

with the same objective and the questions returned

without any change.

Each group had the opportunity to expose their

question and we listed volunteers for the elaboration

of the form in Google Docs so that, in the next stage,

the students could interview their peers. The teacher

took advantage of the opportunity and consulted the

school management on questions they would like to

include (questions 4, 5 and 6 were intended for the

management to understand how the school unit

works).

The selected questions were: 1) What is your

class? 2) What is your age (in years)? 3) How many

siblings do you have? 4) What is your level of

satisfaction with the teachers? 5) What is your level

of satisfaction with the snack? 6) What is your level

of satisfaction with school cleanliness? 7) Have you

ever suffered any type of bullying? 8) Have you ever

suffered any type of physical or verbal aggression? 9)

Have you or anyone in your family ever suffered

racism? 10) Do you know anyone who has suffered

sexual abuse? 11) Do you have a good relationship

with your family?

This form containing the questions elaborated by

the students and the direction is available at the

address: https://forms.gle/ZDm9n5tND6EJKmNv6

3.2 Stage 2: Peer Interviews

Before this step, the school management and teachers

of other classes were informed of the activity that

would be developed.

A commission formed by one student from each

group used smartphones to interview the other

students and, in order for this activity to be developed,

the teacher made his/her internet available and shared

the form link with the group that carried out the

research.

The teacher was responsible for importing the

data into the Geogebra software and building the

Applet for data analysis (activities present in

Minicurso).

3.2 Stage 3: Data Analysis

We made available to the class the Applet

(https://ggbm.at/WXadJuGs) and distributed an

investigative activity (Figure 1) that needed to be

manipulated in Geogebra to be able to answer the

questions (appendix I) in the time made available for

two lesson times, that is, 100 minutes.

Figure 1: Investigative activity.

In the Geogebra Applet (Figure 02), by clicking

on the Data Analysis button, the student could

manipulate logical operators to obtain the quantities

of students with specific ages. In the situation

presented below, we clicked on the symbol of greater

or equal (≥), we typed the value 11, we clicked on the

enter button and we got the answer that 137 people

answered the form.

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Figure 2: Initial screen of Applet in Geogebra.

By clicking on the measures button, we had the

possibility to explore several scenarios in which the

concepts of mean, median, mode and standard

deviation could be verified with the inclusion of a

supposed group of absent students, controlled by a

slider control (g).

By clicking on the measurements button (Figure

3), we had the possibility to explore several scenarios

in which the concepts of mean, median, mode and

standard deviation could be verified with the

inclusion of a supposed group of absent students

controlled by a slider (g).

Figure 3: Applet in Geogebra within Measurements.

3.3 Stage 4: Results Discussion

At this stage, we selected the graphs generated by the

qualitative variables (Graph 1) in order to discuss

them in a great debate, giving everyone the

opportunity to talk about the presence of bullying and

its practice in the school environment.

On the occasion, we made use of the numbers of

the research that they elaborated to raise awareness

and debate, above all to point out how harmful are the

jokes that point out defects and characteristics of

colleagues. We suggested a collective effort to

diminish this index of 42,1% observed on graphic 1.

Figure 4: Graph 1: Percentage of students who have already

been bullied.

4 FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

The proposed questions aimed to promote the Applet

use by the group of students in order to generate

effective learning of basic statistical concepts. We

realized that the students remained engaged in the

activities throughout the process, because in all

activities they were in contact with technology and

saw how it could help them to enhance their studies.

Our choice for Google Docs and Geogebra was in

the direction of providing an investigative

environment that could accelerate the process of data

collection and interpretation, which was evidenced by

Piccolli, who says:

“the choice of software must be based on the

school's pedagogical proposal of mathematics, the

teacher must choose a suitable type of software to

enable the student to build his/her knowledge,

without leaving aside the deep domain that he/she

needs to have both of the content covered and the

program that he/she will use” (Cláudio & Cunha

2001, apud Piccoli, 2006, 45 - 46).

At the end of the activity, we consulted the

students about the work done, especially about the

technology adoption. From a total of 35 students, 23

responded to this consultation. The survey was

conducted via Google Forms and sent to the

WhatsApp group of the class.

In the first question, we wanted to know if the

students liked to carry out the project using

technology (Graph 2) and 100% of the students said

they liked it.

Technology Adoption for Statistics Teaching: An Approach to Enhance Learning Lessons Learned from Building an Investigative

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Figure 5: Graph 2: Students' opinion on the project.

Students were asked how they prefer to study

mathematics (Graph 3) and 60.9% chose the option

that pointed to solving problems in real contexts.

Figure 6: Graph 3: How students prefer to study

mathematics.

We asked the students to make a self-assessment

about the learning of statistical concepts and 91.3%

responded that the project improved the way of

learning.

Figure 7: Graph 4: Self-assessment.

Lastly, with the data from the self-assessment and

with the assessment prepared, we found that the

experience seems to have improved school

performance, since when we evaluated the students in

the first activity (Appendix I), they had 72.67% of

performance; and in the second activity (Appendix I),

they had 74.67% of performance. New research with

larger samples may validate the effectiveness of the

learning approach used.

As a suggestion for further work, we will continue

the approach in social contexts and the use of

mathematical concepts to interpret the phenomena

involved. In addition, we believe that research can

break through school walls and reach the community

more effectively, acting in forming future citizens.

REFERENCES

ABE, Reflexões dos conteúdos de probabilidade e

estatística na escola no Brasil. Available in

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ew/wilton-bussab. Accessed in June 2019.

Almeida, W. N. C.; Malheiro, J. M. S. A experimentação

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matemática: o problema das formas em um clube de

ciências. experiências em ensino de ciências (ufrgs), v.

14, p. 391-405, 2019.

Brasil. Ministério da Educação. Base Nacional Comum

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http://basenacionalcomum.mec.gov.br/images/BNCC_

EI_EF_110518_versaofinal_site.pdf. Accessed on

April 17, 2019.

Cavalcante, N. I. S. O Ensino de Matemática e o software

GeoGebra: Discutindo potencialidades dessa relação

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Moraes, M. C. O paradigma educacional emergente:

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APPENDIX

Data Analysis - Class 801 - prof. Leandro Nascimento

Group components:

___________________________________________________________________

Activity I

a) Assemble the table with all the interviewed students.

Ages Absolute frequency Xi fi Fic

b) What is the age mode?

c) What is the median age? (melhorar o formato do apêndice)

d) What is the mean age?

e) What is the probability of randomly choosing a student and they are older than the mean age of those surveyed?

f) What is the probability of randomly choosing a student and they have the mode of the age of those researched?

g) What is the probability of randomly choosing a student and they are younger than the median age of those

surveyed?

Activity II - Click on the measurements button of the application.

h) Activate the mean option and toggle the selector (represents 10 more students of an age that depends on the

value of g). Has the mean changed? Justify your answer.

i) Activate the median option and toggle the selector (represents 10 more students of an age that depends on the

value of g). Has the mean changed? Justify your answer.

j) Activate the mode option and toggle the selector (represents 10 more students of an age that depends on the

value of g). Has the mean changed? Justify your answer.

k) Activate the standard deviation and mean options and toggle the selector (represents 10 more students of an

age that depends on the value of g). What happens to the standard deviation when the value of g is far from the

mean?Justify your answer.

Technology Adoption for Statistics Teaching: An Approach to Enhance Learning Lessons Learned from Building an Investigative

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