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Innovative dynamic data tools afford opportunities for K-12 students and teachers to explore multivariate data and create linked data representations. These tools also support engagement in data moves, which are transnumerative actions to process, organize, and visualize data. The current study sought to understand how prospective K-12 mathematics teachers (PMTs) use data moves in the Common Online Data Analysis Platform (CODAP) to create and interpret visualizations and statistical measures to make sense of state-level data about education in the United States. Extending the work of Erickson et al. (Citation2019), a framework is presented to characterize data moves and provide examples of actions within CODAP that illustrate each data move. Based on analysis of thirty screencasts created by PMTs, four examples highlight PMTs’ use of data moves to investigate data in CODAP. 

An adaptation of The 5 Practices framework for statistical investigations that accounts for differences between mathematics and statistics. 

This Perspectives on Practice manuscript focuses on an innovation associated with “Engaging Teachers in the Powerful Combination of Mathematical Modeling and Social Justice: The Flint Water Task” from Volume 7, Issue 2 ofMTE. We built on Aguirre et al.’s (2019) integration of mathematical modeling and social justice issues in mathematics teacher education to similarly integrate statistical investigations with social justice issues. 

In 1908, Felix Klein suggested that to mend the discontinuity that prospective secondary teachers face, university instruction must account for teachers’ needs. More than a century later, problems of discontinuity remain. Our project addresses the dilemma of discontinuity in university mathematics courses through simulating core teaching practices in mathematically intensive ways. In other words, we interpret teachers’ needs to include integrating content and pedagogy. We argue that doing so has the potential to impact teachers’ competence. To make this argument, we report fndings from the Mathematics of Doing, Understanding, Learning, and Educating for Secondary Schools (MODULE(S2)) project. The results are based on data from 324 prospective secondary mathematics teachers (PSMTs) enrolled in courses using curricular materials developed by the project in four content areas (algebra, geometry, modeling, and statistics). We operationalized competence in terms of PSMTs’ content knowledge for teaching and their motivation for enacting core teaching practices. We examined pre- and post-term data addressing these constructs. We found mean increases in PSMTs’ outcomes in content knowledge for teaching and aspects of motivation. 

There is a lack of teacher education materials that develop equity literacy in content courses for preservice secondary mathematics teachers. In response, we created teacher education curriculum materials for introductory statistics that include an integrated focus on developing equity literacy and critical statistical literacy. In this article, we provide an overview of our materials’ design along with a detailed look at one activity regarding racial demographics and tracking in high school STEM courses. We present evidence regarding the positive impact of these materials on the teacher candidates’ competency, value, and likelihood of applying their equity literacy and critical statistical literacy. Implications for mathematics teacher educators working to develop equity literacy together with content knowledge are discussed. 

In the past two decades, there has been a trend in materials for mathematics courses for prospective secondary teachers: more opportunities for teachers to “apply mathematics to teaching”. That is, materials increasingly highlight how mathematical knowledge learned in the course can be useful in secondary teaching, and provide opportunities for teachers to harness this knowledge in simulations of teaching. There is little known about the effects of this curricular reform on teachers’ competence. In this report, we use data from the Mathematics of Doing, Understanding, Learning, and Educating for Secondary Schools MODULE(S2) project to examine the potential impact of using such curricular materials. The data include over 300 prospective secondary teachers’ responses to 3 sets of Likert pre-/post-term surveys addressing: mathematical knowledge for teaching; expectancy for enacting selected core teaching practices; and valuing of enacting these practices. We found mean increases across the survey results. We conclude with directions for future research on the impact of this curricular reform. 

Abstract We present a classroom‐ready activity for high school or college students involving an investigation of a rich, multivariate data set concerning educational and demographic characteristics of K‐12 schools at the state level in the United States. The data set includes educational characteristics such as per‐pupil revenue and graduation rate along with demographic characteristics such as poverty rate and economic segregation. Analysis of the data set sparks conversations regarding educational disparities for students in the United States and could prompt curiosity about educational disparities in other locations as well.