Dani Ben-Zvi

• Professor
• University of Haifa at University of Haifa

Advancements in computing and statistical analyses have significantly transformed mathematics education, integrating it with data and computer science. As big data becomes increasingly prevalent, understanding its complexities, including its unique uncertainties, is crucial. This study explores the uncertainty that novice students can articulate du...

The chapters in this volume emanate from the presentations and enriching discussions that characterized the Minerva School 2022 “An Interdisciplinary Exploration of Future Data Pedagogies and Digital Tools to Nurture Citizens’ Reasoning with Models and Modeling in the Big Data Era” held in Paderborn, Germany. This Minerva School brought together a...

Background The sociocultural turn redefined learning in terms of shifting identities. In recent years, learning scientists have explored the connections between learning and various types of identities, including disciplinary identity, gender, race, and more. In this article we focus on national identity, to understand how it is constructed and how...

Responsible citizenship and sound decision-making in today’s information age necessitate an appreciation of the role of uncertainty in the process of generating data-based scientific knowledge. The latter calls for coordinating between different types of uncertainties, related to three types of relevant reasoning: statistical, scientific, and natur...

Estimating and accounting for statistical uncertainty have become essential in today’s information age, and crucial for cultivating a sound decision making citizenry. Engaging with statistical uncertainty early on can support the gradual development of uncertainty-related considerations that are often challenging to foster at any age. Statistical m...

In this article we discuss some of the ethical dimensions of design-based research, which we believe should feature more prominently in CSCL scholarship. We begin by sketching out why it is important for CSCL researchers to articulate their visions of the good and how this can be accomplished in a systematic way. We then outline how ethical discour...

Published in Hebrew, in Israeli Sociology. Citizen science is a growing field of research and practice, in which volunteers engage in active scientific research. This paper describes citizen science ability to promote environmental awareness and social involvement using the case of the Radon Home Survey - a citizen science project for measuring and...

In recent years, big data has become ubiquitous in our day‐to‐day lives. Therefore, it is imperative for educators to integrate nontraditional (big) data into statistics education to ensure that students are prepared for a big data reality. This study examined graduate students' expressions of uncertainty while engaging with traditional and nontrad...

This study examines students’ expressions of uncertainty while interacting with classic and nontraditional big data analyses. The study was designed according to the integrated modeling approach (IMA), which was found to be suitable for the development of reasoning with uncertainty in a classic data setting. Over the course of the activity, 87 expr...

In today's information age, developing data science competencies has become vital to fostering responsible citizenry. However, the actual techniques learners need to become proficient in are still somewhat “in‐construction”, as the relatively new field of data science is constantly expanding to meet new data‐related demands. Data science education...

Employing a statistical modeling inspired pedagogy is becoming a widespread practice in the statistics education community. Many have incorporated the practice of formulating conjectures in their modeling-enhanced educational designs and have reported on its benefits. We further elucidate the mechanism through which students’ conjecturing may be be...

Growing scholarship on the pedagogical applications of statistical modeling is currently taking place to create adaptations of this practice to introduce novices to statistics. These are intended to promote novices’ reasoning, and are typically void of formal mathematical procedures and calculations. In this article, we define the potential product...

Jewish education in Israel's non-religious state (Mamlakhti) schools is intended to support an open-ended, pluralistic dialogue surrounding the question of Jewish identity. The distinct features of Knowledge Building Communities (KBCs) set them apart as a pedagogical approach that is particularly suitable for achieving this educational goal. In thi...

As the pace of change in our world increases, the ability of communities to transform their practices becomes more crucial. Previous research indicated that when a community faces a need to develop its practices, members do not invent improved practices from scratch. Rather, they create improved practices by combining relevant practices from other...

A ‘citizen science’ approach was evaluated as an approach to organize an extensive radon survey to be representative of the population of either single regions or a whole country. The “RadonTest” online system allowed schoolchildren to undertake and record short-term radon tests in their homes. Measurements were carried out in Israel using charcoal...

Learning in a networked society is presented in this symposium with the basic assumption that “schooling” and “society” cannot be considered as separate entities and should bring together the theoretical and practical tools of scientists in both the social and educational sciences. Despite the powerful potential for cross-fostering of ideas between...

Our approach to learning in a networked society is grounded in the assumption that “schooling” and “society” cannot be considered separate entities. Consequently, research in this area should draw on both educational and social sciences. Bringing together the theoretical and practical tools of both domains allows us to examine the types of interact...

Seeking to promote science communication, civic engagement, and informal education, citizen science is a genre of research that connects scientists and non-scientists around projects involving science. This meeting point creates opportunities for potential benefits to both sides. Scientists may advance their research and obtain prestigious funding...

Future learning spaces (FLSs) have become a topic of immense interest as educational researchers and practitioners have reconceptualized learning in the networked society. This dual interest is vital as the scientific field has been fragmented across disciplines on this topic while in practice billions of dollars are being spent but often fail to a...

New forms of data, data visualisation and human interaction with data are changing radically and rapidly. As a result, what it means to be data literate is also changing. In the big data era, people should not simply be passive recipients of data-based reports. They need to become active data explorers who can plan for, acquire, manage, analyse, an...

Helping students interpret and evaluate the relations between two variables is challenging. This chapter examines how students’ aggregate reasoning with covariation (ARwC) emerged while they modeled a real phenomenon and drew informal statistical inferences in an inquiry-based learning environment using TinkerPlotsTM. We focus in this illustrative...

The uncertainty involved in drawing conclusions based on a single sample is at the heart of informal statistical inference. Given only the sample evidence, there is always uncertainty regarding the true state of the situation. An “Integrated Modelling Approach” (IMA) was developed and implemented to help students understand the relationship between...

Statistical modeling is emerging as a fertile research environment in which to promote and learn about student statistical reasoning processes. We outline a paradigm shift toward a modeling perspective that is occurring in statistics education research and how statistical modeling processes involve connecting data, chance and context. The innovativ...

While aggregate reasoning is a core aspect of statistical reasoning, its development is a key challenge in statistics education. In this study we examine how students’ aggregate reasoning with samples and sampling (ARWSS) can emerge in the context of statistical modeling activities of real phenomena. We present a case study on the emergent ARWSS of...

The goal of this study is to explore the role of model comparison, which is a key activity of young learners’ informal reasoning, with statistical models and modeling in the context of informal statistical inference. We suggest a framework to describe this reasoning (the RISM framework), and offer an illustrative case study of two-sixth graders sho...

This study attends the learning sciences to the work of Carl Rogers and his person-centered therapy and education. Building on claims that knowledge building communities are idea-centered, as well as recent research in this area that has looked at learning holistically, we examine the notion of a ‘humanistic knowledge building community’ as an inte...

Research on learning communities has been largely influenced by the sociocultural turn in educational scholarship approximately three decades ago. Here, we present a wider history of research and practice on learning communities as we revisit this highly generative and central topic in the learning sciences. Using this to frame our perspective, we...

The goal of this chapter is to draw attention to the need to think about learning environments and their design as a way of considering how sustainable change in the learning and teaching of statistics can be supported. The goal is not to advocate one particular approach to the design of learning environments but rather to raise awareness of the ne...

This handbook connects the practice of statistics to the teaching and learning of the subject with contributions from experts in several disciplines. Chapters present current challenges and methods of statistics education in the changing world for statistics and mathematics educators. Issues addressed include current and future challenges in profes...

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This sixth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of...

This article examines how two processes – reasoning with statistical modelling of a real phenomenon and aggregate reasoning – can co-emerge. We focus in this case study on the emergent reasoning of two fifth graders (aged 10) involved in statistical data analysis, informal inference and modelling activities using TinkerPlotsTM. We describe nine pha...

Measurement activities were designed in this study on the basis of authentic professional practices in which linear regression is used, to study considerations of variability by students in Grade 12 (aged 17–18). The question addressed in this article is: In what ways do secondary students consider variability within these measurement activities? A...

A fundamental aspect of statistical inference is representation of real-world data using statistical models. This article analyzes students' articulations of statistical models and modeling during their first steps in making informal statistical inferences. An integrated modeling approach (IMA) was designed and implemented to help students understa...

To understand how statistical and other types of reasoning are coordinated with actions to reduce uncertainty, we conducted a case study in vocational education that involved statistical hypothesis testing. We analyzed an intern’s research project in a hospital laboratory in which reducing uncertainties was crucial to make a valid statistical infer...

This symposium presents our efforts to reconceptualize learning spaces from their traditional notions as bound and immutable to a view in which the physical and social boundaries are flexible and dynamically connected to the learning itself. We present the work from five international research centers that consider space as a multi-dimensional medi...

The purpose of this workshop is to advance conceptions of learning communities by considering exciting new lines of research on them. While learning communities such as Brown and Campione's Communities of Learners (CoL, 1994) and Scardamalia and Bereiter's Knowledge Building Communities (KBCs, 1994) are foundational ideas in the learning sciences,...

One key aspect of the educational transformation into the modern era has been the transition of spaces from being immutable to negotiable. In light of the technological, pedagogical, and theoretical innovations that have accompanied this transformation, this international panel discussion brings together five leading researcher centers that conside...

The knowledge and application of the problem context and its relation to data analysis is a key component in the development of students’ informal inferential reasoning. This case study analyzes children’s emergent understanding of the relationship between the context world and the data world while making informal statistical inferences in an inqui...

Being able to provide sound evidence-based arguments and critically evaluate data-based claims are important skills that all citizens should have. It is not surprising therefore that the study of statistics at all educational levels is gaining more students and drawing more attention than it has in the past. The study of statistics provides student...

A concise history of the SRTK International research collaboration co-authored by its founders and co-chairs.

Developing argumentation-based inquiry practices requires teachers and students to be explicit about classroom norms that support these practices. In this study, we asked: How can a teacher scaffold the development of argumentation-based inquiry norms and practices in a mathematics classroom? A primary classroom (aged 9–10) was videotaped during t...

Developing argumentation-based inquiry practices requires teachers and students to be explicit about classroom norms that support these practices. In this study, we asked: How can a teacher scaffold the development of argumentation-based inquiry norms and practices in a mathematics classroom? A primary classroom (aged 9–10) was videotaped during th...

This research shows how participants in classroom learning communities (LCs) come to take responsibility over designing their collaborative learning norms. Taking a micro-developmental perspective within a graduate-level course, we examined fine-grained changes in group discourse during a period of rapid change where this responsibility taking occu...

Helping students develop an aggregate view of data is a key challenge in statistics education. It has been suggested that modeling pedagogy can address this challenge (Lehrer & Schauble, 2004). In this paper we present a case study – part of a UK-Israel research project – that aims to examine how students' reasoning about modeling of a real phenome...

The goal of this article is to introduce the topic of learning to reason from samples, which is the focus of this special issue of Educational Studies in Mathematics on statistical reasoning. Samples are data sets, taken from some wider universe (e.g., a population or a process) using a particular procedure (e.g., random sampling) in order to be ab...

Teachers are often required to engage in professional development (PD), due to ambitious educational reforms hoping to make profound pedagogical changes. Yet, most teachers implement superficial changes, while preserving traditional pedagogy. Two factors that might hinder teachers’ PD are teacher isolation and traditional PD programs. In this pilot...

Recent investigations of technology-supported learning conducted from an instrumental perspective provide a powerful framework for analyzing the process through which artifacts become conceptual tools and for characterizing the ways students come to understand and implement a tool in solving a task. In this chapter, we focus on instrumentation – th...

Long-term effects of learning are a desirable outcome of any educational program and are far from being an obvious result in education. Furthermore, statistical concepts tend to be ambiguous and “short lasting” in students’ reasoning, even among tertiary students. In this longitudinal study, long-term impact of teaching and learning was sought a...

We envision building an ongoing, international research collaboration on learning communities (IRCLC) composed of researchers who are interested in studying LCs. Given this goal, the purpose of this workshop is to bring together active researchers who study LCs, in all their forms, to better understand the past, present, and future of this central...

Roles that students take in solving problems can help in guiding and scaffolding their learning and meaning making. We present a case study – part of a UK-Israel research project – that focuses on the emerging roles spontaneously developed by Israeli eighth-grade students (14 years old) in solving a scientific-statistical inquiry task using TinkerP...

Reasoning about uncertainty is a key and challenging element in informal statistical inferential reasoning. We designed and implemented an "Integrated Pedagogic Approach" to help students understand the relationship between sample and population in making informal statistical inferences. In this case study we analyze two sixth grade students' reaso...

This poster describes and analyzes linked reading and writing through the use of Wikilinks to promote socio-constructivist learning within a technology-enhanced classroom learning community (TCLC). The course under research is a graduate course designed as a TCLC supported by a Wiki collaborative editing environment. We conduct a micro-analysis of...

The aim of this study is to investigate learners’ transforming participation as they enter and engage in a learning community. To do this, we investigated the micro-development of two students’ learning and collaborative practices in the context of a unique learning community that was fostered within a graduate level course. Interpretations of the...

This paper describes the importance of developing students’ reasoning about samples and sampling variability as a foundation for statistical thinking. Research on expert–novice thinking as well as statistical thinking is reviewed and compared. A case is made that statistical thinking is a type of expert thinking, and as such, research comparing nov...

Various studies on computer-supported collaborative learning have shown that attempts to implement collaborative learning in learning communities frequently encounter serious challenges. The current paper, following the philosophical approaches of Martin Buber and Nel Noddings, suggests a way to enhance students' positive appreciation of collaborat...

Goal Recognize and describe the way British and Israeli children account for and express the idea of uncertainty in statistical modelling:  Young children (age 11, UK): learning to talk about uncertainty and range  Older children (age 14, Israel): learning to think about uncertainty and distribution  All children: Learning to use and reason with...

We analyze students' articulations of uncertainty during their first steps in exploring sampling distributions in a TinkerPlots2 inquiry-based learning environment. A new pedagogical "integrated approach" was implemented to help students understand the relationship between sample and population. We focus in this case study on two students (age 13,...

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an updated overview of digital technologies relevant to statistics education, and to summarize what is currently known about how these new technologies can support the development of students’ statistical reasoning at the school level. A brief literature review of trends in statistics education is followed...

Being able to provide sound evidence-based arguments and critically evaluate data-based claims are important skills that all citizens should have. It is not surprising therefore that the study of statistics worldwide at all educational levels is gaining more attention. The study of statistics provides students with tools, ideas, and dispositions to...

This theoretical paper presents a framework adapted from group psychotherapy (GP) for teaching and learning about computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). The framework is used both in the design of a learning community and to explain how aspects of learning occur within it. The design, which we enacted in a graduate level course that taug...

This paper presents a case study of an exemplary blended graduate classroom learning community that showed students taking responsibility over their own collaborative learning. Specifically, the group went through a stage of productive subjective failure before intentionally deciding to explicate and negotiate their own group norms. This transition...

Research on informal statistical inference has so far paid little attention to the development of students’ expressions of uncertainty in reasoning from samples. This paper studies students’ articulations of uncertainty when engaged in informal inferential reasoning. Using data from a design experiment in Israeli Grade 5 (aged 10–11) inquiry-based...

This case study describes, analyzes, and elucidates students' developing understanding of technology-enhanced classroom learning communities (TCLCs). Recognizing that an important aspect of students’ developing understanding is enculturation, where students transform their participation to build competency within the TCLC culture, this research als...

The knowledge and application of the problem context and its relation to data analysis is a key component in the development of students' informal inferential reasoning. This case study analyzes children's emergent understanding of the relationship between the context world and the data world while making informal statistical inferences in an inqui...

Este artigo descreve um modelo para um ambiente investigativo e interativo de aprendizagem estatística, que é projetado para desenvolver o raciocínio estatístico de alunos. Esse modelo é chamado de "Statistical Reasoning Learning Environment" (SRLE) e é construído com base na teoria sócio-construtivista de ensino e aprendizagem. Esse modelo é basea...