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
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Discovery learning: zombie, phoenix, or elephant?
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the discussion about discovery learning is more like an elephant and suggest that strong guidance and repetition may be needed for the discovery of something that cannot be told, and suggest scaffolding, inferentialism, and design research as potential theoretical and methodological ways forward.
Dissertation
Les facteurs influençant la réussite des activités collaboratives médiées par les TICE dans une situation de formation universitaire à la statistique
TL;DR: In this article, the authors observe a situation of formation simultanement active, collaborative and mediee par un logiciel de traitement de donnees afin de reunir des conditions propices a la reussite des etudiants.
Journal ArticleDOI
Assessing misconceptions in reasoning about variability among high school students
Shiau Wei Chan,Zaleha Ismail +1 more
TL;DR: This study helps instructors and researchers to design appropriate assessment and learning activities in a statistics classroom by identifying the misconceptions in reasoning about variability among tenth grade students in Malaysia.
Assessing students' conceptual understanding after a first course in statistics 3
TL;DR: The CAOS test as discussed by the authors is designed to measure students' conceptual understanding of important statistical ideas across three years of revision and testing, content validation, and realiability analysis, and results reported from a large scale class testing and item responses are compared from pretest to posttest in order to learn more about areas in which students demonstrated improved performance from beginning to end of the course, as well as areas that showed no improvement or decreased performance.
References
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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.