What counts as statistical understanding?: An ethnographic study in an AP statistics class


Book: 
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA, April)
Authors: 
Liu, Y.
Pages: 
27-Jan
Year: 
2004
Abstract: 

This study investigates students' statistical learning in a high school classroom setting. Using a theoretical framework derived from interpretive and sociolinguistic ethnography, the study explores the meaning of "statistical understanding" that developed in a statistics class over the course of a school year. Seventeen students enrolled in an AP statistics course participated in the study. Data were collected through participant observation, videotaping of classroom sessions, field notes, and interviews. Initial analysis identified a series of tensions that highlight the shared beliefs of "what counts as statistical understanding". In the paper, I will present and discuss the emergence of these tensions in relation to the classroom interaction and students' learning.

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