Epistemic and Mathematical Beliefs of Exemplary Statistics Teachers

Abstract

Education research has established that teachers' beliefs matter because they can affect classroom practices and student outcomes, and beliefs are viewed as an important construct within statistics education. However, relatively little research about the beliefs of in-service statistics teachers has been conducted. Additionally, little research has been conducted with highly-experienced statistics teachers rather than pre-service teachers or typical teachers. Using two survey instruments, this study describes the beliefs about knowledge and beliefs about mathematical problem-solving for a sample of exemplary statistics teachers. The exemplary statistics teachers in this study responded to the Epistemic Beliefs Inventory and the Indiana Mathematics Belief Scales. Results show that the exemplary statistics teachers in this study had mature epistemic beliefs and strongly positive beliefs toward mathematical problem-solving, but notable patterns of similar responses that run counter to these trends were observed and are discussed.