THE CONCEPT OF DISTRIBUTION

Pre-Service Elementary School Teachers’

Metaphors for the Concept of

Statistical Sample

Randall E. Groth

Salisbury University

regroth@salisbury.edu

Jennifer A. Bergner

Salisbury University

jabergner@salisbury.edu

ABSTRACT

The study describes the nature of pre-service teachers’ idiosyncratic metaphors for the concept of statistical sample. These metaphors were investigated because of their potential to provide insight about individuals’ content knowledge and how that content knowledge is enacted during teaching. Personal metaphors were elicited from 54 pre-service teachers through writing prompts. The writing prompt responses revealed seven different categories of thinking. In some instances, pre-service teachers struggled to construct a metaphor for the concept of sample. In the majority of cases, they constructed a metaphor for sample and discussed its relationship to their knowledge of the concept. The categories of thinking highlight some of the aspects of the concept of sample that teacher educators need to attend to over the course of instruction, and they also point out directions for further research related to metaphorical thinking about statistical content and its interaction with teaching practice.

Keywords: Statistics education research; Sample; Metaphor; Teacher education

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Statistics Education Research Journal, 4(2), 27-42, http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/serj

Ó International Association for Statistical Education (IASE/ISI), Nov, 2005

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Randall E. Groth

119 Emily Dr.

Salisbury, MD 21804

USA