Authentic Practices as Contexts for Learning to Draw Inferences Beyond Correlated Data


Authors: 
Adri Dierdorp; Arthur Bakker; Harrie Eijkelhof; Jan van Maanen
Volume: 
13(1&2)
Pages: 
online
Year: 
2011
Publisher: 
Mathematical Thinking and Learning
URL: 
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/title~db=all~content=g932654185
Abstract: 

To support 11th-grade students' informal inferential reasoning, a teaching and learning strategy was designed based on authentic practices in which professionals use correlation or linear regression. These practices included identifying suitable physical training programmes, dyke monitoring, and the calibration of measurement instruments. The question addressed in this study is: How does a teaching and learning strategy based on authentic practices support students in making statistical inferences about authentic problems with the help of correlation and linear regression? To respond to this question we used video-recordings of lessons, audio-taped interviews, classroom field notes, and student work from a teaching experiment with 12 Dutch students (aged 16-17 years). The analysis provided insights into how the teaching and learning strategies based on authentic practices supported them to draw inferences about authentic problems using correlated data. The evidence illustrates how an understanding of the authentic problem being solved, collecting their own data to become acquainted with the situation, and learning to coordinate individual and aggregate views on data sets seemed to support these students in learning to draw inferences that make sense in the context.

The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education