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Students making sense of statistics through storytelling: a theoretical perspective based on Bruner’s narrative mode of thought

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Abstract

A persistent problem in teaching introductory statistics has been helping students overcome their fears and the abstract nature of what they need to learn. Students’ own contextualised stories are argued to present an opportunity for humanising the abstract, helping reduce student fears to complement traditional teaching approaches. This paper applies Bruner (Actual minds, possible worlds, Harvard University Press, 1986) theoretical perspectives on narrative mode of thought to understand how students’ own contextualised stories might support them in making sense of university introductory statistics. An exploratory, design research study was undertaken where 31 student participants were interviewed across a two-year period. All participants had completed an introductory statistics course where they wrote contextualised children’s stories about normal distributions and sampling distributions of the mean. Using an assumption-based, conjecture-driven, reflective analysis, participant interview data was analysed to generate preliminary research findings. Two preliminary findings are detailed in this paper. One revealed that participants initially don’t seem to naturally make connections with statistics using their own stories, while another showed that once they did so, their stories helped initiate pathways of access for making sense of their statistical learning. To test the preliminary findings, Bruner (Actual minds, possible worlds, Harvard University Press, 1986) theoretical perspectives on narrative mode of thought—presupposition, subjectification, and multiple perspectives—were used to develop an analytical tool. The methodology in the study provides new insights for understanding how students’ own contextualised stories might help them make sense of their learning. The implications of the study are relevant for statistics education, particularly in the areas of statistical thinking processes.

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Data availability

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Carl Sherwood and Katie Makar. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Carl Sherwood and Katie Makar and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Notes

  1. Grades in Australia range from a low of 1 to a high of 7, with 4 being the lowest passing grade.

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Acknowledgements

The manuscript is based on the completed PhD thesis by Dr Carl Sherwood in 2020. Feedback from Dr Michael Bulmer during the original research is gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Economics, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Carl Sherwood & Katie Makar

  2. School of Education, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Katie Makar

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  1. Carl Sherwood
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Correspondence to Carl Sherwood.

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Ethical approval

The research study that underpins this publication has ethical approval provided by the Business, Economics & Law Low & Negligible Risk Ethics Sub-Committee at The University of Queensland. Approval Number: 2017001278, dated 28/9/2017. With human participants involved in the research, informed consent was obtained by first sending an email invitation to possible participants. Details about the research were included in a Participant Information and Consent Sheet. Upon participants agreeing to take part in the study, each participant was required to read, sign, and date the Participant Information and Consent Sheet. This was done prior to participants taking any part in the research. It was also made clear to each participant, on the Participant Information and Consent Sheet, that they could withdraw from the research at any time and their data would be destroyed and not used in any way.

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Appendices

Appendix 1

Note: Students’ excerpts are uncorrected

Exhibit 1: Rebecca’s first MOSS Book submission

Page 1 MOSS Book (The Smiths and their eggs: Normal distribution)

figure a

Mr. and Mrs. Smith are a loving old couple who run an egg farm together in a breathtaking countryside. Every morning after breakfast, they carry a bamboo basket to collect the new-laid free-range eggs.

The weight of the egg varies. According to their weight, eggs are categorized into medium, large and extra-large 3 different sizes. Usually, the number of large eggs that the Smiths collect outdoors is the largest.

If they sorted all the eggs into tree piles based on their weight, then place the tree piles of eggs from medium to large to extra-large size, we will surprisingly find that eggs are piled up into a bell-like shape. This is known as normal distribution of eggs.

Page 2 MOSS Book (Baby chicks and egg cartons: Sampling distribution of the mean)

figure b

After Mr. and Mrs. Smith collect the fresh eggs, they will carefully choose a small part of them and put into the egg incubator. Approximately 20 days later, “Peep, peep!” the fuzzy little baby chicks will come to this wonderful world for the first time. So excited! The Smiths will take special care of these newly hatched baby chicks to ensure they can grow up healthily and happily.

For those unselected eggs, the Smiths will put them into 6s “half-dozens” and 12s “dozens” egg cartons then ship them to the local open-air market on the weekend. When they arrive at the market, they will arrange two different sized egg cartons separately from left (light) to right (heavy) based on their weight. Because the hens work so hard in the farm, the Smiths always have enough eggs to arrange.

After they finish arranging, they will find that most of egg cartons are placed in the middle and both sized egg cartons are piled up into the shape of a hill. Additionally, the hill of “dozens” carton is moderately higher than the hill of “half-dozens” carton. This is what we call the sampling distribution.

Exhibit 2: Rebecca’s second MOSS Book submission (sketched ideas for discussion with the researcher)

figure c

Appendix 2

Exhibit 3: Hellen’s MOSS Book submission (Page 1 – Normal distribution)

figure d

Exhibit 3 (continued): Hellen’s MOSS Book (Page 2 – Sampling distribution of the mean)

figure e

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Sherwood, C., Makar, K. Students making sense of statistics through storytelling: a theoretical perspective based on Bruner’s narrative mode of thought. Math Ed Res J 36 (Suppl 1), 175–209 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13394-022-00440-y

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