Assessing misconceptions in reasoning about variability among high school students

Abstract Previous studies demonstrated that students encountered difficulties in understanding the concept of variability. Hence, the purpose of this study is to identify the misconceptions in reasoning about variability among tenth grade students in Malaysia. In this study, a statistical reasoning test consisting of five main questions with 16 items was employed. A total of 412 students from nine secondary schools participated in solving problems. The results showed that 41.5% of students answered a question concerning standard deviation incorrectly. Two new misconceptions about variability have been discovered in this study. Several recommendations are proposed in order to overcome students’ incorrect reasoning. This study helps instructors and researchers to design appropriate assessment and learning activities in a statistics classroom.

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