Abstract

OLIVEIRA JUNIOR, Ailton Paulo de; SALERNO, Sandra  and  MORAIS, Ana Meire de Oliveira. Understanding Statistical Terms: what is the Census and what is it used for?. Educ. Puc. [online]. 2023, vol.28, e237501. ISSN 2318-0870.  https://doi.org/10.24220/2318-0870v28e2023a7501.

The objective of this work was to discuss and compare the ambiguous use of the concept of the statistical census by 44 elementary school students (11 to 14 years old) and 65 high school students (15 to 19 years old) from a state school in the city of São Paulo, São Paulo Brazil. We sought to identify the meanings through everyday knowledge and what they learned at school. This research was exploratory, with a qualitative and quantitative approach, in which multivariate textual analyzes were carried out, the Descending Hierarchical Classification, using the software R Interface for Multidimensional Text and Questionnaire Analysis. The results revealed that elementary and high school students brought definitions the word census and different aspects of its use. However, the result was backed up by searching or researching websites on the internet. Ambiguities were observed as different statistical concepts appeared in the definitions presented, but the simple “copy-and-paste” did not necessarily indicate the appropriation of these terms and statistical concepts. Furthermore, the aspect related to the census is carried out and its counterpoint with sample selection was not addressed.

Keywords : Multivariate textual analysis; Brazil; Census; Statistical concepts; Elementary and high school.

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