Learning Environment & Situational Factors to Consider

1. Specific Context of the Teaching/Learning Situation

How many students are in the class? Is the course primary, secondary, undergraduate, or
graduate level? How long and frequent are the class meetings? How will the course be delivered:
live, online, blended, flipped or in a classroom or lab? What physical elements of the learning
environment will affect the class? What technology, networking and access issues will affect the
class?

 20 students in a class (6 classes)

 Secondary – 6th grade
 Every day – 45 minutes
 Flipped
 I currently have 12 iPads in my classroom and I have access to a class set

2. General Context of the Learning Situation

What learning expectations are placed on this course or curriculum by: the school, district,
university, college and/or department? the profession? society?

 Texas State Standards (TEKS)

o 6.12A: Represent numeric data graphically, including dot plots, stem-and-leaf plots,
histograms, and box plots

o 6.12B: Use the graphical representation of numeric data to describe the center,
spread, and shape of the data distribution

o 6.12C: Summarize numeric data with numerical summaries, including the mean and
median (measures of center) and the range and interquartile range (IQR)
(measures of spread), and use these summaries to describe the center, spread,
and shape of the data distribution

o 6.12D: Summarize categorical data with numerical and graphical summaries,

including the mode, the percent of values in each category (relative frequency
table), and the percent bar graph, and use these summaries to describe the data
distribution

o 6.13A: Interpret numeric data summarized in dot plots, stem-and-leaf plots,

histograms, and box plots

o 6.13B: Distinguish between situations that yield data with and without variability

Learning environment & Situational factors adopted from: by L. Dee Fink, (2003) Creating Significant Learning
Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
3. Nature of the Subject
Is this subject primarily theoretical, practical, or a combination? Is the subject primarily
convergent or divergent? Are there important changes or controversies occurring within the field?

 Subject (Statistics) is practical.

 Convergent – solving problems and use their learning to find solutions to practical
issues
 There can be controversies with statistics as how the numbers are looked at are
endless. The numbers can be in your favor or not depending on what you are trying
to get.

4. Characteristics of the Learners

What is the life situation of the learners (e.g., socio-economic, cultural, personal, family,
professional goals)? What prior knowledge, experiences, and initial feelings do students usually
have about this subject? What are their learning goals and expectations?

 My students are between the ages of 11 and 13 and our school is mostly Hispanic and
are bilingual (ELL) and majority of our students are either free or reduced lunch.
 Student’s knowledge in statistics is low and their math knowledge is limited.
 Students will learn how to create a graphical representation of the data found as well
as display the data in various ways either in a presentation or an activity that will allow
them to understand how to collect, organize, display, and interpret data.

5. Characteristics of the Teacher

What beliefs and values does the teacher have about teaching and learning? What is his/her
attitude toward: the subject? students? What level of knowledge or familiarity does s/he have
with this subject? What are his/her strengths in teaching?

 Statistics is fun and used in every profession and each student can choose what data
they want to collect or create a statistical question to ask their peers so they can
dissect it themselves.
 I like to bring real-world scenarios into my classroom so students can see why people
and businesses do what they do. I believe each learning style is important within a
classroom and each of them play a role in our students learning (behaviorism,
cognitivism, and constructivism).
 I like playing with numbers as numbers and manipulating them to benefit the situation
or what needs to happen to make the numbers work in our favor.
 Students are at a point to where they constantly ask what they need to do to get an A
or a B in the class and with this knowledge of data they will have the knowledge to do
this themselves.

Learning environment & Situational factors adopted from: by L. Dee Fink, (2003) Creating Significant Learning
Experiences: An Integrated Approach to Designing College Courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass