Three Cases Of Study On The Secondary Vocational Students' Level Of Statistical Thinking

In this paper, based on the Mooney's framework for characterizing middle school students' statistical thinking, we make a survey about the three students(Sl,S2,S3) in the secondary vocational school by the research methods of the combination of testing and interviews.the following two questions are herewith mainly discussed:1 In the Mooney's framework for characterizing middle school students' statistical thinking, which level have the three students in the secondary vocational school reached?2 What are the factors that affect the development of their statistical thinking?Research results show that:S1's statistical thinking in the four processes is at a quantitative level. S2's statistical thinking in the four processes is at a transitional level. S3's statistical thinking in the processes of "describing data" and " representing data" is at a quantitative level. S3's statistical thinking in the processes of "organizing and reducing data" and " analyzing and interpreting data" is at a analytical level.The factors that affect the development of statistical thinking in three secondary vocational students include:1 lack of understanding of the knowledge, but paying attention to the solution to the problem; 2 lack of the ability of describing data when developing the ability of representing data; 3 lack of the ability of organizing and reducing data when developing the ability of representing data; 4 lack of the ability of describing data when developing the ability of analyzing and interpreting data.; 5 lack of related topics on the ability of reading data(chart) in class; 6 lack of the ability of proportional reasoning due to the misty proportion concept; 7weakness of logical thinking ability and awareness of data.Based on the above research, the author puts forward four suggestions for the study: 1 The teacher increases the related topics on the ability of reading data(chart) in class to improve students'ability of describing data; 2 The teacher encourages students to collect the real data to cultivate the sense of data; 3 With the aid of the computer instruction, it is easier to improve their ability of organizing and reducing data; 4 The teacher can help the students to review the proportion concept in system as well as improve their ability of proportional reasoning.