title: Cultural Influences in Probabilistic Thinking

authors: Sharma, Sashi

subjects: probabilistic thinking

abstract: Concerns about students' difficulties in statistics and probability and a lack of research in this area outside of western countries led to a case study which explored form five (14 to 16 year olds) students' ideas in this area. The study focussed on probability, descriptive statistics and graphical representations. This paper presents and discusses the ways in which students made sense of probability constructs (equally likely and proportional reasoning) obtained from the individual interviews. The findings were interpreted in relation to cultural perspective. The findings revealed that many of the students used strategies based on cultural experiences (beliefs, everyday and school experiences) and intuitive strategies. While the results of the study confirm a number of findings of other researchers, the findings go beyond those discussed in the literature. The use of beliefs, everyday and school experiences was considerably more common than that discussed in literature. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for teachers and researchers.

text: Cultural Influences in Probabilistic Thinking Concerns about students' difficulties in statistics and probability and a lack of research in this area outside of western countries led to a case study which explored form five (14 to 16 year olds) students' ideas in this area. The study focussed on probability, descriptive statistics and graphical representations. This paper presents and discusses the ways in which students made sense of probability constructs (equally likely and proportional reasoning) obtained from the individual interviews. The findings were interpreted in relation to cultural perspective. The findings revealed that many of the students used strategies based on cultural experiences (beliefs, everyday and school experiences) and intuitive strategies. While the results of the study confirm a number of findings of other researchers, the findings go beyond those discussed in the literature. The use of beliefs, everyday and school experiences was considerably more common than that discussed in literature. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for teachers and researchers.

year: 2012

title: New Zealand Regions, 1986-2001: Education and qualifications

authors: Pool, Ian

subjects: education

abstract: This paper investigates changes in patterns of education and the highest qualifications people gained over the period 1986 to 2001 for the regions of New Zealand. Education is an essential element in the accumulation of human capital. Factors analysed in this paper are highest qualification gained, early education participation, school retention and qualification attained at leaving school. Over this period there have been major changes in the education people have sought with increases in the time people stay at schools as well as the numbers of people who go onto tertiary education therefore getting university level qualifications. The levels of qualifications gained by people differ substantially by region. Auckland and Wellington in particular have higher proportions of their population with higher qualifications than the regions which are rural and on the periphery.

text: New Zealand Regions, 1986-2001: Education and qualifications This paper investigates changes in patterns of education and the highest qualifications people gained over the period 1986 to 2001 for the regions of New Zealand. Education is an essential element in the accumulation of human capital. Factors analysed in this paper are highest qualification gained, early education participation, school retention and qualification attained at leaving school. Over this period there have been major changes in the education people have sought with increases in the time people stay at schools as well as the numbers of people who go onto tertiary education therefore getting university level qualifications. The levels of qualifications gained by people differ substantially by region. Auckland and Wellington in particular have higher proportions of their population with higher qualifications than the regions which are rural and on the periphery.

year: 2005-11

title: Intersecting knowledge worlds: Describing the cultural interfaces within a socioscientific issue

authors: Wagner, Brent

subjects: cultural interface

abstract: Increasing numbers of science teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand are exploring ways to incorporate indigenous mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and ways of knowing) into their science programmes. This article presents findings from a study that examined how senior biology students in two English-medium secondary schools incorporated mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge in their discussions about the use of 1080 poison to control mammalian predators. From a social constructivist ontology and interpretivist mode of inquiry using qualitative methodology, a triadic epistemic agency conceptual framework was developed inductively and used to analyse students’ written scripts for their national school leaving qualification (NCEA), and transcriptions of individual interviews. The study took place prior to the introduction of equal status to mātauranga Māori within the New Zealand Curriculum. Deductive analysis using the Triadic identified a group of ten students who drew from both knowledge systems, with varying degrees of knowledge integration. In addition to detailed representations of the theoretical space of the locale of the learner, the findings also identified three distinctive cultural interfaces occupied by the students: conflicted, parallel, and, connected. The findings underscore the importance of enabling diverse knowledge systems in biology classes to converge. Specifically, the incorporation of mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge encourages a critical stance towards knowledge claims, supports pluralist knowledge use among culturally and linguistically diverse learners and promotes critical engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) in senior secondary school biology.

text: Intersecting knowledge worlds: Describing the cultural interfaces within a socioscientific issue Increasing numbers of science teachers in Aotearoa New Zealand are exploring ways to incorporate indigenous mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge and ways of knowing) into their science programmes. This article presents findings from a study that examined how senior biology students in two English-medium secondary schools incorporated mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge in their discussions about the use of 1080 poison to control mammalian predators. From a social constructivist ontology and interpretivist mode of inquiry using qualitative methodology, a triadic epistemic agency conceptual framework was developed inductively and used to analyse students’ written scripts for their national school leaving qualification (NCEA), and transcriptions of individual interviews. The study took place prior to the introduction of equal status to mātauranga Māori within the New Zealand Curriculum. Deductive analysis using the Triadic identified a group of ten students who drew from both knowledge systems, with varying degrees of knowledge integration. In addition to detailed representations of the theoretical space of the locale of the learner, the findings also identified three distinctive cultural interfaces occupied by the students: conflicted, parallel, and, connected. The findings underscore the importance of enabling diverse knowledge systems in biology classes to converge. Specifically, the incorporation of mātauranga Māori alongside biological science knowledge encourages a critical stance towards knowledge claims, supports pluralist knowledge use among culturally and linguistically diverse learners and promotes critical engagement with socioscientific issues (SSI) in senior secondary school biology.

year: 2026