Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies

Educational issues about data concept literacy have recently received widespread attention from all sectors of society in China. There are a lot of studies on the meaning and current situation of data concept literacy and training strategies, but there is little research on the cognition of pre-service teachers on data concept literacy. In this study, 22 master's degree holders in education from two grades at a university were investigated for their data concept literacy cognition using the semi-structured interview method. After encoding the interview results, we used Excel to make statistical data and quantitative data analysis. It is found that in China pre-service junior high school mathematics teachers: 1. were not accurate and reasonable enough in their cognition of the content related to data concept literacy; 2. did not have a wide range of cognition of data concept literacy, and the pre-service teachers' cognition of data concept literacy was mainly focused on the content that was more general and closely related to their own lives; 3. the overall cognition of data concept literacy was shallow and mainly focused on a lower level; 4. The overall cognitive clarity of data concept literacy is low, and fewer points can be recognized clearly. It is thus suggested that: 1. special training and education about core literacy should be strengthened in the training of pre-service teachers so that data concept literacy can be emphasized; 2. pre-service junior high school mathematics teachers should take the initiative to learn the core literacy and improve their knowledge of data concept literacy.