A hierarchy of tertiary students' consideration of variation.


Book: 
Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference On Teaching Statistics (ICOTS-7), Salvador, Brazil.
Authors: 
Reid, J., & Reading, C.
Editors: 
Rossman, A., & Chance, B.
Category: 
Year: 
2006
Publisher: 
Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute.
URL: 
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/17/C122.pdf
Abstract: 

In this study a hierarchy of consideration of variation was developed from students' responses to a questionnaire given at the beginning of a tertiary introductory statistics course. The hierarchy was then used to code responses to the same questionnaire post-study. Comparison of student performances showed that the development of consideration of variation differs with the context of the question. The proposed hierarchy could provide a basis for a more general hierarchy of consideration of variation that is applicable across a variety of tasks. It also supports educators in identifying the level of a student's consideration of variation, providing direction for teaching and learning activities that will help that consideration develop.

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