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Students’ use of narrative when constructing statistical models in TinkerPlots

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Abstract

Initial research has shown that simulating data from models created with computer software may enhance students’ understanding of concepts in introductory statistics; yet, there is little research investigating students’ development of statistical models. The research presented here examines small groups of students as they develop a model for a situation where a music teacher plays ten notes for a student who tries to guess each of the notes correctly. As students constructed their models and described their thinking, their descriptions were narrative in nature, focusing on the story of notes played and guessed. In this context, their focus on narrative appeared to support the development of productive statistical models. In addition, when students investigated pre-built TinkerPlots models, they preferred models that they perceived as more communicative or narrative in nature. These results have important pedagogical implications in terms of designing modeling curriculum.

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Notes

  1. While some researchers distinguish between narrative and story (e.g., Fuchs, 2015), others use these terms interchangeably. In our work, we use stories and narrative interchangeably.

  2. If the group came up with one of the three models shown then we did not show them that model, opting to show only the two models they did not use in their work.

  3. Email the authors of this paper to obtain the entire problem solving session protocol.

  4. We do not focus on quantitative summaries in this paper, however the majority of students did create models that focused on notes.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of National Science Foundation for this CAREER project (NSF REC 1453822). Any conclusions expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. We also wish to thank Andee Rubin for thoughtful feedback on students’ use of narrative.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technical Education Research Center, Cambridge, USA

    Jennifer Noll

  2. Portland State University, Portland, USA

    Kit Clement, Jason Dolor, Dana Kirin & Matthew Petersen

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  1. Jennifer Noll
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  2. Kit Clement
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  3. Jason Dolor
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  4. Dana Kirin
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  5. Matthew Petersen
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Correspondence to Jennifer Noll.

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Noll, J., Clement, K., Dolor, J. et al. Students’ use of narrative when constructing statistical models in TinkerPlots. ZDM Mathematics Education 50, 1267–1280 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-018-0981-x

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