Multidirectional Modelling for Fostering Students' Connections between Contexts and Data, and Probability Distributions

Abstract

The article investigates how 14- to 15- year-olds build informal conceptions about data distributions, and theoretical probability distributions as they engaged in a multidirectional modelling process using computer-based simulations. The students of this study are engaged in modelling. First, students examined data from an unknown stochastic process and built a model of the processes that might explain the outputs. Second, the students constructed representations that generated data whose distributions were well predictive of real world samples. This study shows shifts in the conceptual structures across the two directions and points to the potential of specific aspects of multidirectional modelling for fostering the development of students' robust knowledge of the logic of inference when using computer-based simulations to model and investigate connections between real contexts and data, and probability distributions.