Using Informal Inferential Reasoning to Develop Formal Concepts: Analyzing an Activity

Abstract

Inferential reasoning is a central component of statistics. Researchers have suggested that students should develop an informal understanding of the ideas that underlie inference before learning the concepts formally. This paper presents a hands-on activity that is designed to help students in an introductory statistics course draw informal inferences about a bag of bingo chips and connect these ideas to the formal T-test and confidence interval. This activity is analyzed using a framework and recommendations drawn from the research literature.

• Confidence intervals
• Hypothesis testing
• Informal reasoning
• Statistical inference