Open AccessJournal Article
Exploring Students' Conceptions of the Standard Deviation
Robert delMas,Yan Liu +1 more
TLDR
This article investigated introductory statistics students' conceptual understanding of the standard deviation and found that students moved from simple, one-dimensional understandings of standard deviation that did not consider variation about the mean to more mean-centered conceptualizations that coordinated the effects of frequency (density) and deviation from the mean.Abstract:
SUMMARY This study investigated introductory statistics students’ conceptual understanding of the standard deviation. A computer environment was designed to promote students’ ability to coordinate characteristics of variation of values about the mean with the size of the standard deviation as a measure of that variation. Twelve students participated in an interview divided into two primary phases, an exploration phase where students rearranged histogram bars to produce the largest and smallest standard deviation, and a testing phase where students compared the sizes of the standard deviation of two distributions. Analysis of data revealed conceptions and strategies that students used to construct their arrangements and make comparisons. In general, students moved from simple, one-dimensional understandings of the standard deviation that did not consider variation about the mean to more mean-centered conceptualizations that coordinated the effects of frequency (density) and deviation from the mean. Discussions of the results and implications for instruction and further research are presented.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Gesturing standard deviation: Gestures undergraduate students use in describing their concepts of standard deviation
TL;DR: The different types of gestures undergraduate students produce when talking about the concept of standard deviation are described and a coding scheme that can be utilized for future research linking these gestures to students’ understanding of SD is presented.
Dissertation
Using Fathom® statistical education software in high school to examine students' acceptance of virtual simulation and use of simulation to model sample size when sampling from large and infinite populations
TL;DR: The study suggests that Fathom is suitable for Year 9 students, but recommends further research in the use of re-sampling to exploit fully the software’s potential and concludes that a process of statistical enquiry may be used both to promote acceptance of virtual simulation and to foster the development of statistical “habits of mind.”
Posted Content
The Challenge of Developing Statistical Literacy, Reasoning and Thinking. Dani Ben-Zvi and Joan Garfield
TL;DR: In this article, Bayesian inference for a normal mean under flat, conjugate, and nonconjugate priors is presented, followed by a comparison with frequentist techniques.
Journal ArticleDOI
Improving the Teaching of Hypothesis Testing Using a Divide-and-Conquer Strategy and Content Exposure Control in a Gamified Environment
David Delgado-Gómez,Franks González-Landero,Carlos Montes-Botella,Aaron Sújar,Sofia Bayona,Luca Martino +5 more
TL;DR: An approach based on the divide-and-conquer methodology is proposed to facilitate its learning, designed to sequentially explain and evaluate the different concepts involved in hypothesis testing, ensuring that a new concept is not presented until the previous one has been fully assimilated.
Journal ArticleDOI
Le calcul mental en mathématiques : quels potentiels pour l'activité mathématique ?
TL;DR: In this article, le but de cet article est d'illustrer le potentiel du calcul mental pour promouvoir l'activite mathematique des eleves.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
Accommodation of a scientific conception: Toward a theory of conceptual change
TL;DR: In this paper, a general model of conceptual change is proposed, which is largely derived from current philosophy of science, but which they believe can illuminate * This model is partly based on a paper entitled "Learning Special Relativity: A Study of Intellectual Problems Faced by College Students,” presented at the International Conference Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of Albert Einstein, November 8-10, 1979 at Hofstra University.
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The Role of Anomalous Data in Knowledge Acquisition: A Theoretical Framework and Implications for Science Instruction
Clark A. Chinn,William F. Brewer +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a detailed analysis of the ways in which scientists and science students respond to anomalous data is presented, giving special attention to the factors that make theory change more likely.