In our current society, academic thinking skills are increasingly important. Talented upper secondary school students in particular have the cognitive potential to develop these skills. However, fostering these cross-curricular thinking skills is complex and knowledge about how to enhance these skills is still limited.

To further promote the development of academic thinking skills within the upper secondary school of CSG Prins, the Academic Skills Examination Subject (ACVA) will be introduced with effect from 1 September 2021. The aim is to develop a continuous learning line for ACVA from grade 4 to 6. This will involve supplementing existing teaching modules for philosophy of science and doing research with newly developed teaching modules. Although vwo-wide, the research proposed here focuses on the science profile in particular. It will zoom in on the specific issues within this profile, such as experimenting and working with complicated formulas.

Current online educational developments offer new opportunities to structure and deepen educational activities, including through the use of digital platforms and simulation software. For the teaching modules to be developed, we will investigate how a (partly) online approach can add value to achieve the intended learning objectives.

This research focuses on processing knowledge on how academic thinking skills can be stimulated within upper secondary school STEM education by offering blended teaching modules for the newly introduced ACVA. The aim here is to create a design that is also relevant for other VO schools that want to boost their students' academic thinking skills.

The increasing amount of data in media over the last year—think of COVID—illustrates the necessity for students to become statistically literate—including interpreting inferences. Drawing inferences involves making data-based claims under uncertainty when only partial data are available. However, inferences are challenging for students in Grade 10 and higher. This thesis focused on the question: How can a theoretically and empirically based learning trajectory introduce 9th-grade students to statistical inference? To answer this question, we used a design-based research approach, complemented with a case study into learning statistics from and with technology. The design of the trajectory was informed by theories on repeated sampling and statistical modeling using a black box paradigmatic context. The learning trajectory was implemented in teaching practice during three interventions. A pre- and posttest were designed to evaluate the trajectory’s effects in the large-scale final cycle. A national and international comparison of student results showed that students who took part in the learning trajectory (N = 267) scored significantly higher on statistical literacy than the comparison group that followed the regular curriculum (N = 217), in particular, on the domain of statistical inference. We also observed positive effects on other domains of statistical literacy. These findings suggest that current statistics curricula for grades 6–9 can be enriched with an inferential focus. The benefit of this early introduction is that students learn more about inference and not less about the other domains of statistical literacy, to anticipate for subsequent steps in students’ statistics education. 

• prof. dr. A. (Arthur) Bakker
• prof. dr. P.H.M. (Paul) Drijvers

Current secondary school statistics curricula focus on procedural knowledge and pay too little attention to statistical reasoning. As a result, students are not able to apply their knowledge to practice. In addition, education often targets the average student, which may lead to gifted students missing challenge. This study explored ways to enhance grade 8 (Pre-University level) students’ statistical literacy through within-class differentiation. The developed course materials consisted of a differentiated module in the Digital Mathematics Environment (DME), combined with investigation activities during classroom sessions. The material focused on statistical reasoning using visual representations made with TinkerPlots We concluded that this teaching arrangement indeed increased students’ statistical literacy.

Keywords: Statistical literacy, descriptive statistics, Digital Mathematics Environment, level differentiation, TinkerPlots^©.

Stuur voor concrete lesbeschrijvingen en toegang tot het DWO-materiaal een e-mail naar m.j.s.vandijke-droogers@uu.nl. De lesbeschrijvingen zijn tevens te downloaden vanuit Google-Drive via het tabblad 'Links'.

• dr.Jos Tolboom (SLO) en prof. dr. Paul Drijvers (UU)