Statistical Literacy: Reasoning patterns in the concrete case of genetic testing

Abstract

Various situations in everyday life require risk-assessments, in which probability, uncertainty and chance phenomena play important roles. Although aspects of statistics and risk are being addressed in various school subjects, the current practice in secondary education falls short of developing students into statistically literate citizens. It is unclear what such literacy would entail in concrete real-life situations. The aim of this research was to gain insight in the reasoning patterns of various types of statistically literate citizens to provide a more practical basis from which learning goals for education could be specified. To reach this goal three biology teachers, three math teachers and three clinical geneticists were subjected to a think aloud protocol while dealing with a Socio-scientific issue selected from a newspaper article. Afterwards they were interviewed regarding their vision and professional practice. Vignettes from the experts’ reasoning patterns were created. Results show different reasoning patterns leading to similar conclusions about the newspaper article. Furthermore, context knowledge positively influenced the amount of critical questions asked, as well as respondents’ confidence in posing these questions. Implications for education predominantly point to improving transfer of students’ knowledge between Math and subject classes and attention towards different beliefs and attitudes.