Designing mean learning based on the PMRI-STEM approach coffee brewing context for culinary arts vocational high school students

Abstract

Understanding the mean as a measure of central tendency is fundamental to statistical literacy; however, school mathematics instruction often reduces the concept to procedural computation, limiting students’ opportunities to interpret data meaningfully and connect statistical ideas with real-world situations. Such procedural approaches contribute to difficulties in representing, interpreting, and applying mathematical information, which are key components of mathematical literacy. Although contextual and interdisciplinary learning environments have been advocated to address these challenges, limited research has explored how PMRI and STEM integration can support students’ conceptual understanding of the mean in vocational mathematics education. Addressing this gap, this study aimed to develop and investigate a PMRI-STEM learning design using the context of coffee brewing to support Culinary Arts Vocational High School students’ mathematical literacy. Employing design research, the study was conducted through three phases: preliminary design, teaching experiment, and retrospective analysis. Participants were Grade 10 students enrolled in a Culinary Arts Vocational High School program. Data were collected through classroom observations, students’ written work, and learning documentation and were analyzed descriptively to examine students’ learning processes and mathematical literacy development. The resulting learning trajectory consisted of four interconnected activities involving the design of a simple coffee filter funnel, measurement of coffee grounds, observation of coffee extraction, and determination of a standard coffee taste through mean calculations. Findings indicate that the coffee-brewing context supported students in organizing and representing data, calculating and interpreting the mean, and using mathematical information to justify decisions in authentic situations. The study contributes a context-based PMRI-STEM instructional framework that promotes meaningful statistical learning and supports the development of mathematical literacy in vocational education.