PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS' ATTITUDES TOWARD THE USE OF DIFFERENT MODES OF REPRESENTATION IN STATISTICS TEACHING AND LEARNING

In many countries the teaching of statistical concepts is compulsory. Primary school teachers have to teach basic statistical concepts, probably without having enough mathematical and statistical background. In addition, they may not carry positive attitudes toward the subject. In this study pre-service teachers are instructed to teach statistical concepts with the use of different modes of representations, algebraic, diagrammatic, verbal and tabular. The target of the present study is to explore Greek pre-service teachers' attitudes towards modes of representations and their translations, with the aim of developing educators' understanding of statistics and their confidence in their subject awareness and their teaching methodologies. In addition, the study seeks to reveal Greek pre-service teachers' attitudes towards multiple representations, to find out their favorite modes and their level of confidence in handling them. Thus, this paper explores 167 Greek pre-service teachers' perceptions of the usage of different modes of representation in statistics learning. The results reveal that Greek pre-service teachers appreciate the value of the usage of different types of representations for understanding a concept, mainly because it helps them comprehend it, and realize that statistics is not a process of numbers and symbols.