Student Approaches to Constructing Statistical Models using TinkerPlots TM

Abstract

Statistical literacy skills and technological literacy skills are becoming increasingly entwined as the practice of statistics grows to rely on the power of technology. More and more, statistics educators suggest reforming introductory college statistics courses to include more emphasis on technology and modeling. But what is the impact of such a focus on student learning? This research uses a case study approach, examining two groups of students’ solutions to a statistical inference problem. One group received a reform-oriented curriculum focused on modeling and simulation using technology and another group received a traditional treatment of introductory statistics. We describe fundamental differences in the way these two groups conceived of this statistical inference problem as well as how the technology used in the reform class appeared to reframe students ways of thinking about inference. We also discuss challenges of both approaches for student thinking and share implications for teaching and future research.