Transforming recess unit: a mathematics data-management unit in which students survey, graph, and present findings to change school practice¶

Design · All designs
Evidence · 2 claims (1 for, 1 mixed) · 1 study (1 qualitative), q2 · 0 of 1 report an effect size · 2 claims rest on one study

Description¶

A two-week interdisciplinary mathematics unit (two hours a day, five days a week) in which Grade 4 students designed surveys about playground use, represented results with tally charts, frequency tables, and double bar graphs, and presented findings to peers, teachers, the principal, and the school council. The unit connected local curriculum topics of “frequency, graphs, percentage, and measures of the centre of a distribution of values” to students' own issues, aiming to transform the social terrain of the playground.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

Teacher and researcher collaboration to design the unit around issues students identified
Curriculum connections to data management and mapping
Opportunities for students to present results to audiences with power to act

Constraints¶

The article notes some students' marginalized identities were further reinforced in the unit and quieter voices were not heard

Target Learners¶

Grade 4 elementary students in a linguistically diverse urban school

Learning Goals¶

data management (survey design, graph representation, ratio, percentage)
measures of centre
comparing two related sets of data

Claims¶

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

Takeuchi, M.A. (2020). Geopolitical configuration of identities and learning: Othering through the institutionalized categorization of “English language learners. Cognition and Instruction. Advance online publication https://doi.org/10.1080/07370008.2020.1825438

Page metadata

Field	Value
`type`	`design`
`id`	`transforming-recess-data-unit`
`title`	`Transforming recess unit: a mathematics data-management unit in which students survey, graph, and present findings to change school practice`
`description`	`A two-week interdisciplinary mathematics unit (two hours a day, five days a week) in which Grade 4 students designed surveys about playground use, represented results with tally charts, frequency tables, and double ba...`
`status`	`review`
`generated`	by `process:settle-candidates` on `2026-10-18`
`trust`	unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content
`sources`	1 — `takeuchi-2020`

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