An Analysis of Statistical Reasoning
Saslow, Laura
:
2005-07-26
Abstract
This study analyzes the development of statistical reasoning during several mathematics classes of an intact fourth-grade classroom. The teacher and her students were members of a multi-year teacher-researcher collaborative effort. In all, fourteen class sessions were videotaped, one on January 27, 2000 and the rest from April 6, 2000 to May 18, 2000. Data sources include this video recording, made using a single camera, and rough transcripts of the class talk, written at the time of the videotaping. In the course of the lessons, the students and their teacher worked through statistical ideas and problems about data describing differently sized bubbles, people, and plants. The lessons were analyzed several different ways, including looking at the order and connectivity of turns of talk, the frequency of mention of different topics, the comparisons made between different data sets, and how arguments were formed about expectations and distributions.