Supporting students to develop concepts underlying sampling and to shuttle between contextual and statistical spheres

Abstract

To stimulate students’ shuttling between contextual and statistical spheres, we based tasks on professional practices. This article focuses on two tasks to support reasoning about sampling by students aged 16–17. The purpose of the tasks was to find out which smaller sample size would have been sufficient for making reliable inferences. The research question addressed is: How can students be supported to develop concepts underlying sampling and to shuttle between contextual and statistical spheres? Design research was carried out to test whether the tasks had the potential to support students’ concepts underlying sampling and to find indications of what teachers should do to use this potential. Analysis of video recordings indicates that the students showed a balanced development of the concepts underlying sampling. They seemed aware of the purposes of the tasks and were able to apply their statistical knowledge but tended to forget to shuttle back.