Developing conceptions of statistics by designing measures of distribution

Abstract

Students often learn procedures for measuring, but rarely do they grapple with the foundational conceptual problem of generating and validating coordination between a measure and the phenomenon being measured. Coordinating measures with phenomenon involves developing an appreciation of the objects and relations in each as well as establishing their mutual correspondence. We supported students’ developing conceptions of statistics by positioning them to design measures of center and of variability for distributions that they had generated through repeated measure of a length. After students invented and explored the viability of their measures individually, they participated in a public (whole-class conversation) forum featuring justification and reflection about the viability of their designed measures. We illustrate how individual invention enticed students to attend to, and to make explicit, characteristics of distribution not initially noticed or known only tacitly. Conceptions of statistics and of relevant characteristics of distribution were further expanded as students justified and argued about the utility and prospective generalization of particular inventions. Teachers supported student learning by highlighting prospective relations between characteristics of measures and characteristics of distribution as they emerged during the course of activity in each setting.