Correlation

Overview

In general, we find that students tend to confuse correlation in an everyday sense (association, relationship) with bias in a strict statistical sense (quantified measurement of the linear relationship between two quantitative variables). Research shows that this confusion is very frequently not resolved even after a student has completed an introductory course.

Student Notions

When presented with a prompt such as: "", student responses have been summarized into the following categories (in this case, categories are not exclusive):

  • Statistical Notions
    • Numerical measure of linear relationship between variables
    • How close to a line points on a graph fall

  • Colloquial Notions
    • Two things sharing similarity or equivalence
    • Two things that are related, associated, connected, linked, corresponding, etc.
    • Two VARIABLES that are related, associated, connected, linked, corresponding, etc.



Activities

The following HILT activities have been designed to address student misconceptions regarding "Correlation" and have research that suggests they improve student learning:

CorrChorusLink.png
Correlation Chorus