Students’ Reasoning about Variability in Graphs during an Introductory Statistics Course

Rachel Chaphalkar; Ke Wu

doi:10.29333/iejme/7602

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Rachel Chaphalkar ¹ ^* , Ke Wu ²

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¹ University of Wisconsin – Whitewater, USA² University of Montana, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

Variation and variability are key concepts in K-16 statistics education. Prior research has investigated students’ reasoning about variability in different contexts. However, there is a lack of research on students’ development of understanding of variability when comparing distributions in bar graphs, dot plots, and histograms as they took an introductory college-level statistics course. This exploratory case study conducted three interviews with each of the ten participants through a four-month period, at the beginning, middle, and end of the course. The Structure of Observed Learning Outcomes (SOLO) taxonomy was used to analyze participants’ responses. Results indicated that overall the group of participants demonstrated a stable understanding of variability over the semester (i.e. lack of improvement). However, when examining each student’s reasoning, four types of reasoning development paths were found: improvement, lack of change, decline, and inconsistent. This study provides implications in teaching college introductory statistics course and recommendations for future research.

Keywords

statistical reasoning
college introductory statistics
distribution comparisons
qualitative case study

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 15, Issue 2, May 2020, Article No: em0580

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/7602

Publication date: 26 Jan 2020

Article Views: 2442

Article Downloads: 1686

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How to cite this article

APA

Chaphalkar, R., & Wu, K. (2020). Students’ Reasoning about Variability in Graphs during an Introductory Statistics Course. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 15(2), em0580. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/7602

Vancouver

Chaphalkar R, Wu K. Students’ Reasoning about Variability in Graphs during an Introductory Statistics Course. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2020;15(2):em0580. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/7602

AMA

Chaphalkar R, Wu K. Students’ Reasoning about Variability in Graphs during an Introductory Statistics Course. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2020;15(2), em0580. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/7602

Chicago

Chaphalkar, Rachel, and Ke Wu. "Students’ Reasoning about Variability in Graphs during an Introductory Statistics Course". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2020 15 no. 2 (2020): em0580. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/7602

Harvard

Chaphalkar, R., and Wu, K. (2020). Students’ Reasoning about Variability in Graphs during an Introductory Statistics Course. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 15(2), em0580. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/7602

MLA

Chaphalkar, Rachel et al. "Students’ Reasoning about Variability in Graphs during an Introductory Statistics Course". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 15, no. 2, 2020, em0580. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/7602