Learning to integrate statistical and work-related reasoning

Abstract

People typically find it hard to use mathematics and statistics they have learned at school in work contexts. We used a boundary-crossing approach to help apprentices in secondary vocational laboratory education integrate the statistics learned at school with work-related knowledge. In five one-hour meetings three apprentices refreshed their statistical knowledge (e.g., correlation, regression, variation coefficient) in relation to the work task of comparing two measurement machines (including linearity, stability, reproducibility). Data collection involved video and audio recordings of the meetings and students’ data from their research projects as well as interviews with two teachers and two workplace supervisors. An analysis of the apprentices’ reasoning during the meetings revealed that the level of integrating mathematical-statistical and work-related reasons increased significantly and with medium effect sizes both at group and individual level.