An Investigation of Secondary Students' and Teachers' Conceptions of Variation

Portland State University, Portland OR

Investigators

Abstract

This project targets the investigation of middle and secondary school students' conceptions of variation and explores how those conceptions develop over time. The investigation proceeds as students explore data sets and sampling problems in their mathematics classes. Likewise, the investigation will shed light on teachers' ideas about statistical variation, how those ideas change with experience, and how they affect teaching strategies. Attempts to understand teacher knowledge include an investigation of their pedagogical content knowledge-that is, knowledge specifically about how statistical variation can be taught effectively. These understandings-of student and teacher cognition-will in turn be used to help teachers design their own new approaches to teaching statistical variation. The effectiveness of these teacher-designed and research-based approaches will be tested against the performance of comparison groups of teachers and students.