Middle

Challenges and Opportunities in Teaching and Learning Data Literacy through Art

Achieving data literacy is challenging when schools narrowly focus on statistical reasoning rather than on meaning- and inference-making. Without attention to the social contexts of data, learners can fail to develop a critical stance toward data, to understand the nature and production of data, the questions that it can answer, and the ways that data can be used to inform and misinform. We explore art as an accessible and personally relevant approach to developing middle school students’ data literacy. We designed and implemented a 2-week long arts-integrated unit in a grade 7 classroom.

Author/Presenter

Camillia Matuk

Kayla Desportes

Anna Amato

Megan Silander

Ralph Vacca

Veena Vasudevan

Peter J. Woods

Year
2021
Short Description

Achieving data literacy is challenging when schools narrowly focus on statistical reasoning rather than on meaning- and inference-making. Without attention to the social contexts of data, learners can fail to develop a critical stance toward data, to understand the nature and production of data, the questions that it can answer, and the ways that data can be used to inform and misinform. We explore art as an accessible and personally relevant approach to developing middle school students’ data literacy.

Dancing with Data: Embodying the Numerical and Humanistic Sides of Data

Data literacy is important for supporting individuals to incorporate information from research studies into their own perspectives and decision-making processes. However, it can be challenging for students to read, understand, and relate to data. Students have to be able to traverse the representational forms that data takes on (i.e., numerical, graphical, etc.) and connect it to their understanding of a topic.

Author/Presenter

Kayla Desportes

Ralph Vacca

Marian Tes

Peter J. Woods

Camillia Matuk

Anna Amato

Megan Silander

Year
2022
Short Description

We explore the implementation of a co-designed data-dance unit in which middle school students created their own embodied metaphors to represent and communicate about graphs through dance. In analyzing dance artifacts and post-study interviews with the learners and teachers, we demonstrate how the creation of embodied metaphors in dance led to new ways of exploring the data as learners reflected on different perspectives on topics across numerical values, contexts, and implications.

Dancing with Data: Embodying the Numerical and Humanistic Sides of Data

Data literacy is important for supporting individuals to incorporate information from research studies into their own perspectives and decision-making processes. However, it can be challenging for students to read, understand, and relate to data. Students have to be able to traverse the representational forms that data takes on (i.e., numerical, graphical, etc.) and connect it to their understanding of a topic.

Author/Presenter

Kayla Desportes

Ralph Vacca

Marian Tes

Peter J. Woods

Camillia Matuk

Anna Amato

Megan Silander

Year
2022
Short Description

We explore the implementation of a co-designed data-dance unit in which middle school students created their own embodied metaphors to represent and communicate about graphs through dance. In analyzing dance artifacts and post-study interviews with the learners and teachers, we demonstrate how the creation of embodied metaphors in dance led to new ways of exploring the data as learners reflected on different perspectives on topics across numerical values, contexts, and implications.

Dancing with Data: Embodying the Numerical and Humanistic Sides of Data

Data literacy is important for supporting individuals to incorporate information from research studies into their own perspectives and decision-making processes. However, it can be challenging for students to read, understand, and relate to data. Students have to be able to traverse the representational forms that data takes on (i.e., numerical, graphical, etc.) and connect it to their understanding of a topic.

Author/Presenter

Kayla Desportes

Ralph Vacca

Marian Tes

Peter J. Woods

Camillia Matuk

Anna Amato

Megan Silander

Year
2022
Short Description

We explore the implementation of a co-designed data-dance unit in which middle school students created their own embodied metaphors to represent and communicate about graphs through dance. In analyzing dance artifacts and post-study interviews with the learners and teachers, we demonstrate how the creation of embodied metaphors in dance led to new ways of exploring the data as learners reflected on different perspectives on topics across numerical values, contexts, and implications.

"I Happen to Be One of 47.8%": Social-Emotional and Data Reasoning in Middle School Students' Comics about Friendship

Effective data literacy instruction requires that learners move beyond understanding statistics to being able to humanize data through a contextual understanding of argumentation and reasoning in the real-world. In this paper, we explore the implementation of a co-designed data comic unit about adolescent friendships. The 7th grade unit involved students analyzing data graphs about adolescent friendships and crafting comic narratives to convey perspectives on that data.

Author/Presenter

Ralph Vacca

Kayla Desportes

Marian Tes

Megan Silander

Camillia Matuk

Anna Amato

Peter J. Woods

Year
2022
Short Description

Effective data literacy instruction requires that learners move beyond understanding statistics to being able to humanize data through a contextual understanding of argumentation and reasoning in the real-world. In this paper, we explore the implementation of a co-designed data comic unit about adolescent friendships.

"I Happen to Be One of 47.8%": Social-Emotional and Data Reasoning in Middle School Students' Comics about Friendship

Effective data literacy instruction requires that learners move beyond understanding statistics to being able to humanize data through a contextual understanding of argumentation and reasoning in the real-world. In this paper, we explore the implementation of a co-designed data comic unit about adolescent friendships. The 7th grade unit involved students analyzing data graphs about adolescent friendships and crafting comic narratives to convey perspectives on that data.

Author/Presenter

Ralph Vacca

Kayla Desportes

Marian Tes

Megan Silander

Camillia Matuk

Anna Amato

Peter J. Woods

Year
2022
Short Description

Effective data literacy instruction requires that learners move beyond understanding statistics to being able to humanize data through a contextual understanding of argumentation and reasoning in the real-world. In this paper, we explore the implementation of a co-designed data comic unit about adolescent friendships.

"I Happen to Be One of 47.8%": Social-Emotional and Data Reasoning in Middle School Students' Comics about Friendship

Effective data literacy instruction requires that learners move beyond understanding statistics to being able to humanize data through a contextual understanding of argumentation and reasoning in the real-world. In this paper, we explore the implementation of a co-designed data comic unit about adolescent friendships. The 7th grade unit involved students analyzing data graphs about adolescent friendships and crafting comic narratives to convey perspectives on that data.

Author/Presenter

Ralph Vacca

Kayla Desportes

Marian Tes

Megan Silander

Camillia Matuk

Anna Amato

Peter J. Woods

Year
2022
Short Description

Effective data literacy instruction requires that learners move beyond understanding statistics to being able to humanize data through a contextual understanding of argumentation and reasoning in the real-world. In this paper, we explore the implementation of a co-designed data comic unit about adolescent friendships.

Co-Designing for Privacy, Transparency, and Trust in K-12 Learning Analytics

The process of using Learning Analytics (LA) to improve teaching works from the assumption that data should be readily shared between stakeholders in an educational organization. However, the design of LA tools often does not account for considerations such as data privacy, transparency and trust among stakeholders. Research in human-centered design of LA does attend to these questions, specifically with a focus on including direct input from K-12 educators.

Author/Presenter

June Ahn

Fabio Campos

Ha Nguyen

Maria Hays

Jan Morrison

Year
2021
Short Description

The process of using Learning Analytics (LA) to improve teaching works from the assumption that data should be readily shared between stakeholders in an educational organization. However, the design of LA tools often does not account for considerations such as data privacy, transparency and trust among stakeholders. Research in human-centered design of LA does attend to these questions, specifically with a focus on including direct input from K-12 educators. In this paper, we present a series of design studies to articulate and refine conjectures about how privacy and transparency might influence better trust-building and data sharing within four school districts in the United States.

When Should I Use a Measure to Support InstructionalImprovement at Scale? The Importance of Considering BothIntended and Actual Use in Validity Arguments

Despite the ease of accessing a wide range of measures, little attention is given to validity arguments when considering whether to use the measure for a new purpose or in a different context. Making a validity argument has historically focused on the intended interpretation and use.

Author/Presenter

Marsha Ing

Starlie Chinen

Kara Jackson

Thomas M. Smith

Year
2021
Short Description

Despite the ease of accessing a wide range of measures, little attention is given to validity arguments when considering whether to use the measure for a new purpose or in a different context. Making a validity argument has historically focused on the intended interpretation and use. There has been a press to consider both the intended and actual interpretations and how users make sense of the data when constructing validity arguments, but the practice is not widespread.This paper contributes to existing research on validity by highlighting the value of attending to the actual interpretation and use of a measure aimed at supporting instructional improvement in mathematics.

Making Sense of Sensemaking: Understanding How K–12 Teachers and Coaches React to Visual Analytics

With the spread of learning analytics (LA) dashboards in K-12 schools, educators are increasingly expected to make sense of data to inform instruction. However, numerous features of school settings, such as specialized vantage points of educators, may lead to different ways of looking at data. This observation motivates the need to carefully observe and account for the ways data sensemaking occurs, and how it may differ across K-12 professional roles.

Author/Presenter

Fabio C. Campos

June Ahn

Daniela K. DiGiacomo

Ha Nguyen

Maria Hays

Year
2021
Short Description

With the spread of learning analytics (LA) dashboards in K-12 schools, educators are increasingly expected to make sense of data to inform instruction. However, numerous features of school settings, such as specialized vantage points of educators, may lead to different ways of looking at data. This observation motivates the need to carefully observe and account for the ways data sensemaking occurs, and how it may differ across K-12 professional roles. Our mixed-methods study reports on interviews and think-aloud sessions with middle-school mathematics teachers and instructional coaches from four districts in the United States.