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Students Reasoning About Variation in Risk Context

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Topics and Trends in Current Statistics Education Research

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Abstract

This chapter explores students’ reasoning about variation when they compare groups and have to interpret spread in terms of risk . In particular, we analyze the responses to two problems administered to 87 ninth-grade students. The first problem consists of losses and winnings in a hypothetical game; the second is about life expectancy of patients after medical treatments. The problems consist of comparing groups of data, and choosing one in which it is more advantageous to bet or to receive medical treatment. In this research we propose three levels of students’ reasoning when they interpret variation. Decision making in the third level of reasoning is influenced by risk. As a conclusion, some characteristics of the problems and the solutions provided by the students are highlighted.

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Acknowledgements

Grant EDU2016-74848-P (FEDER, AEI). Grant CONACYT No. 254301.

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Correspondence to José Antonio Orta Amaro .

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Amaro, J.A.O., Sánchez, E.A. (2019). Students Reasoning About Variation in Risk Context. In: Burrill, G., Ben-Zvi, D. (eds) Topics and Trends in Current Statistics Education Research. ICME-13 Monographs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03472-6_3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03472-6_3

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-03471-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-03472-6

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