The Role of Causality in the Co-ordination of Two Perspectives on Distribution Within a Virtual Simulation

Title
The Role of Causality in the Co-ordination of Two Perspectives on Distribution Within a Virtual Simulation
Publication Date
2006
Author(s)
Prodromou, Theodosia
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0685-7756
Email: tprodrom@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:tprodrom
Pratt, Dave
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
International Association for Statistical Education
Place of publication
Netherlands
DOI
10.52041/serj.v5i2.501
UNE publication id
une:8338
Abstract
Our primary goal is to design a microworld which aspires to research thinking-in-change about distribution. Our premise, in line with a constructivist approach and our prior research, is that thinking about distribution must develop from causal meanings already established. This study reports on a design research study of how students appear to exploit their appreciation of causal control to construct new situated meanings for the distribution of throws and success rates. We provided on-screen control mechanisms for average and spread that could be deterministic or subject to stochastic error. The students used these controls to recognise the limitations of causality in the short term but its power in making sense of the emergence of distributional patterns. We suggest that the concept of distribution lies in co-ordinating emergent data-centric and modelling perspectives for distribution and that causality may play a central role in supporting that co-ordination process.
Link
Citation
Statistics Education Research Journal, 5(2), p. 69-88
ISSN
1570-1824
Start page
69
End page
88

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