Examines the role of variation in statistics education. Describes a chance and data unit with a focus on variation that was conducted in three high school mathematics classes. (ASK)

Reports on (n=11) student attempts at 3 combinatorial questions focusing mainly on 3 aspects of strategy: (1) listing; (2) subdivision into cases; and (3) use or misuse of 4 standard formulas. (MKR)

Describes a lesson designed to teach the probabilistic topics of permutation and combinations in a constructivist manner. (ASK)

Describes a lesson in which students develop a knowledge of the principles of chance and apply them to real world events. (CCM)

Preference between forced choice and free choice in concurrent-chain schedules of reinforcement was investigated in pigeons after exposure to particular combinations of terminal links. In Experiment 1, in which terminal links always ended with reinforcers, one of three pairs of terminal links was arranged as preexposure: (a) both terminal links…

This paper discusses programs that clarify some statistical ideas often discussed yet poorly understood by students. The programs adopt the approach of demonstrating what is happening, rather than using the computer to do the work for the students (and hide the understanding). The programs demonstrate normal probability plots, overfitting of…

Objective: Children with autism often demonstrate distress and oppositionality when exposed to requests to complete academic or household tasks. Errorless academic compliance training is a success-focused, noncoercive intervention for improving child cooperation with such activities. In the present study, the authors evaluated treatment and…

Early assessment grades are recorded and distributed each semester to selected students at Muskingum College. The assumption is that students will take adverse signals and respond positively, leading to fewer academic difficulties and higher retention. This paper examines the validity of such assumptions by considering the probability that an…

This article details an exploration of exponential decay and growth relationships using M&M's and dice. Students collect data for mathematical models and use graphing calculators to make sense of the general form of the exponential functions. (Contains 10 figures and 2 tables.)

This article describes a project in which certain key concepts in probability were explored using graphics calculators with year 10 students. The lessons were conducted in the regular classroom where students were provided with a Casio CFX 9850 GB PLUS graphics calculator with which they were familiar from year 9. The participants in the…

If one rolls a coin across a chessboard and it comes to rest on the board, what is the probability that it covers some corner of one of the grid squares? The online magazine "Plus" (2004) posed this problem for students to solve. It is a useful problem for several reasons: it introduces the idea of probability in a continuous sample space, it has…

This paper provides a longitudinal perspective on changes in Italian men's earnings inequality since the late 1970s by decomposing the earnings autocovariance structure into its long-term and transitory parts. Cross-sectional earnings differentials grew over the period and the longitudinal analysis shows that such growth was determined by the…

This research study investigates the effectiveness of two different theoretical models, constructivism and traditionalism, on third grade students' academic achievement in establishing mathematical connections in learning multiplication basic facts. Four third grade classes in a St. Louis area Public School District were grouped into two sections,…

This article explores the intuitions of secondary education majors regarding probability. This is accomplished by administering a two-question instrument to 113 participants. Their responses to these questions, and more importantly the explanations they provide for these answers, are analysed. The conclusions drawn may be informative to teachers…

Research on violence prediction during the past 2 decades has evolved appreciably in terms of depicting determinants of violence and developing psychometrically sound actuarial measures to predict the probability of future violent behavior. This article provides a brief synopsis of information on predicting violence gained in the past 2 decades,…