The Language of Shape

Students often struggle with describing the shape of different data distributions as they are distracted by the noise and do not ‘see’ the signal. Their attention is drawn to the actual outline of the distribution rather than an inferred distributional shape. In this chapter, we describe part of an instructional sequence for learning about shape starting with large data distributions. The instruction was trialled in a year 10 class (age 14) and included a focus on developing the language of shape for describing distributions and identifying key features for description. Responses from pre- and post-tests are briefly discussed and a proposed framework for describing distributions is presented.

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