Examination of 9th-grade students’ informal statistical inferences with regard to measures of central tendency and variability

Statistical inference is a process of interpretation of data. considering the importance of making a statistical inference without receiving any formal instruction on statistics, revealing the ways in which these processes occur is vital. therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate how 9thgrade students make informal statistical inference in the context of central tendency and measures of variability. informal statistical inference test (iiçtt) which includes open-ended questions was administered to 34 students who have just begun 9th grade. data obtained from students’ written responses were analyzed using makar and rubin’s (2009) theoretical framework of informal statistical inference. findings indicated that the majority of students can make informal statistical inference about measures of central tendency and variability. it was also found that students can use formal concepts with informal references