The Conceptual Understanding of Variability in the Data Distributions

Abstract

Recent studies on the concept of variability propose that the idea of spread, or variability should permeate the entire curriculum of statistics, and educators need to modify learning experiences so that students can move comfortably from identifying variability; to describing, representing, and sifting out causes for variability; and finally, to measuring variation(Garfield & Ben-Zvi, 2008). Given this background, the chapter first presents the hypothetical learning trajectory for the concept of variability in brief. This chapter is part of the research carried out for author’s doctoral dissertation. The purpose of the original study is to demonstrate a hypothetical learning trajectory for the concept of variability based on local instruction theory as a didactic idea for learning design of the variability concept in the data distributions and sampling situations, theoretically based on the design research.

Ji, E., & Kim, W. (2014). The conceptual understanding of variability in the data distributions. In D. Ben-Zvi, & K. Makar (Eds.), Teaching and learning of statistics: International perspectives (pp. xxx–xxx). Haifa, Israel: Statistics Education Center, The University of Haifa.