This paper is from Session 8C: Research on developing students’ informal statistical inferential reasoning

which comes under Topic 8: Research in statistics education

Informal statistical inference revisited

Presenter

• Katie Makar (University of Queensland, Australia)

Co-author

• Andee Rubin (TERC, United States)

Abstract

Several years ago, we characterized “informal statistical inference” as a claim that went beyond the data, using the data as evidence and acknowledging uncertainty (Makar & Rubin, 2009). This characterization was intentionally ambiguous in order to provide a context for ongoing research on statistical reasoning (especially with younger learners and those without formal statistical training) and to provoke discussion among researchers whose uses of the term differed from one another. Since then, research about informal statistical inference has proliferated, from work with young children to tertiary settings. In this paper, we review recent research on informal statistical inference, investigating issues and new questions that have emerged around looking “beyond the data”, using “data as evidence” and “articulating uncertainty”.