Consideration of Variation: A Model for Curriculum Development

Consideration of variation has been identified as one of the fundamental types of statistical thinking, and recent research into the understanding of variation highlights its growing importance. Curriculum needs to reflect this trend. This chapter proposes a model for an integrated approach to curriculum development where consideration of variation is used as the linking thread. The application of this process to a tertiary introductory service statistics course is presented. A hierarchy of levels of consideration of variation is developed from students’ responses to “minute papers” and typical responses in the various levels of the hierarchy are discussed. The hierarchy can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of the integration of variation into the curriculum. This research has implications for teachers of statistics, in the development of curriculum, and for researchers in the growing field of students’ understanding of statistics.