Designing an Assessment to Measure Students' Inferential Reasoning in Statistics: The First Study, Development of a Test Blueprint

Abstract

Accompanied with ongoing calls for reform in statistics curriculum, mathematics and statistics teachers purposefully have been reconsidering the curriculum and the content taught in statistics classes. Changes made are centered around statistical inference since teachers recognize that students struggle with understanding the ideas and concepts used in statistical reasoning. Despite the efforts to change the curriculum, studies are sparse on the topic of characterizing student learning and understanding of statistical inference. Moreover, there are no tools to evaluate students' statistical reasoning in a coherent way. In response to the need for a research instrument, in a series of research study, the re-searcher developed a reliable and valid measure to assess students' inferential reasoning in statistics (IRS). This paper describes processes of test blueprint development that has been conducted from review of the literature and expert reviews.