Primary education prospective teachers’ critical attitude evaluation as a component of statistical literacy

Abstract

For recent decades, research in statistical education has emphasized the need to promote the development of statistical literacy and especially, one of its key elements, the critical attitude towards data-based information. Because the teachers’ future professional practice will depend on current knowledge and skills to critically interpret and argue statistical information, an evaluation is required to indicate whether an educational reinforcement of their current training is relevant. In this work, critical attitude of a sample of 653 prospective teachers of primary education when identifying the data source and the reliability of the information present in simple graphs is evaluated, but that present some type of bias in their edition. A descriptive and inferential analysis has been carried out that reveals the difficulty when critical interpretation of their information, especially in the pie charts, area graphs and pictograms.