• School Mathematics
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.599-614
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• 2011

According to prior research studies, comparison of two data sets promote informal and formal statistical reasoning, which may mediate descriptive and inferential statistics. However, there has been relatively little attention given to the mediation of both descriptive and inferential statistics. We attempted to identify which statistical concepts or factors students used and how they applied concepts or factors to make decisions when they compared data sets. We also investigated the characteristics and changes of the view of concepts and factors. As a result, we identified that students paid attention to data value, center, spread, and sample, which are important factors of inferential statistics. Students' understanding of each factors were sometimes appropriate for inferential statistics, but sometimes not. From the results, we suggest instructional ideas for a task which can connect descriptive and inferential statistics.