Making connections between the two perspectives on distribution

Abstract

My premise, in line with a constructivist approach and Pratt's (1998) research, is that thinking about distribution must develop from causal meanings already established. The results of the third iteration of a design research study indicate support for my conjecture that it is possible to design an environment in which students' well established causal meanings can be exploited to coordinate the emergent data-centric and modelling perspectives on distribution (Prodromou & Pratt, 2006). In this study, I report on the fourth iteration that investigates how and whether students bridge the two perspectives on distribution.