dc.description.abstract | The purpose of this study is to analyze the subject of Probability and Statistics in the middle school mathematics textbooks of seventh grade to twelfth grade in Taiwan and Hong Kong, so as to understand the context of teaching materials in the two regions. The quantitative analysis is focusing on Probability and Statistics. In the part of Probability, referring to the pre-diagnostic two-way specification table of Probability by Wei-Chang Shann (2018) and “Hsu’s probability II” by Che-Yu Hsu (2019), the “Two-Way Specification of Probability Integrated Table” was expanded to be used as the Probability analysis tool in this study. In the part of Statistics, it refers to the “Statistical Cognition Analysis Table” organized by Kai-Lin Yang and Kin Hang Lei (2012), which is regarded as the “Classification Table of Types of Statistical Knowledge” as the statistical analysis tool of this study. In terms of qualitative description, the textbook and curriculum outline of the two regions were compared through document analysis to understand the similarities and differences in the writing context of Probability and Statistics.
The quantitative analysis results show that in terms of the sample question named “Probability Types” of Probability, the Classical Probability is dominant in Taiwan and Hong Kong (accounting for 80% and 87% respectively), the proportion is much higher than other Probability Types, but the discussion of subjective Probability is not involved in the two regions. In terms of the “Probability Concept Level”, the single events dominate in Taiwan and Hong Kong (accounting for 50% and 58% respectively). In terms of the distribution of Statistical sample questions, Taiwan and Hong Kong both focus on Statistical Knowledge (accounting for 98% and 83% respectively), while the proportion of Statistical Reasoning and Statistical Thinking in Hong Kong accounts for 17% of the whole; however, it only accounts for 2% in Taiwan, indicating that Taiwan still has a lot of teaching content to be added to enrich students’ Statistical literacy ability.
In the aspect of qualitative description, it shows that the two regions have the differences in the content of Frequency Probability, Geometric Probability, Expected Value, Conditional Probability and Bayes’ theorem. However, there is no significant difference in the content of Statistical between the two regions, but there is a significant difference in the senior high school. The researcher believe that someday in the future, the revision of Statistics in senior high school in Taiwan can refer to Hong Kong that will extend more Statistical application situations, so as to improve students’ Statistical literacy ability and make up for the regret of compulsory Statistics in senior high school in Taiwan. The results of this study provide the reference for the course designers of Probability and Statistics in middle schools in the future as well as it is expected to be helpful for the textbook editing of Probability and Statistics unit in middle school mathematics textbooks.
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