Inference AS 3.10 – What matters most?

The formal inference standard AS 3.10 is the culmination for students of their high school sample to population inference journey which started at Year 9.

Students are expected to:

1. Research into a familiar context and link what they see throughout the PPDAC cycle to this research (the “so-what?” factor)
2. Integrate informed contextual knowledge throughout the PPDAC cycle.
3. Use re-sampling methods (bootstrap confidence intervals) as their analysis tool to answer their investigative question (looking at the difference in means or medians)
4. Write a report that looks more like a research report rather than an assessment-style write-up, with meaning and interpretation of the resulting statistical findings evident throughout.

The following documents are important background reading for teachers developing students informal inferential reasoning at all levels

• “Ways of obtaining confidence intervals” a short discussion of bootstrapping versus formulae.
• “Confidence intervals – What matters most” a more comprehensive discussion on the range of understandings to be conveyed about confidence intervals in general and bootstrap confidence intervals in particular.
• Inference progressions across the senior curriculum.

Also see links to the senior secondary guides guided by the Curriculum AOs. These provide teachers with possible context elaborations.

Senior Secondary Guide AO S8-1

Senior Secondary Guide AO S8-2