Fostering Productive Statistical Skepticism
Search for other papers by Susanne Strachota in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Lindsay Reiten in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Numbers and statistical representations (e.g., graphs, charts, etc.) are often used to mislead people into believing an argument. For example, in fall 2014 Wisconsin was considering whether to raise the minimum wage. A radio commercial claimed, “Ninety-eight percent of the employers in this state are small-business owners….” The commercial suggested that the state's employers would face severe financial difficulties if the minimum wage were raised. We were struck by the misleading nature of this commercial: After all, ninety-eight percent of the employees in this state do not work for small-business owners.
Supplementary Materials
- Supplemental Materials (PDF 268 KB)
Contributor Notes
Susanne Strachota, sstrachota@wisc.edu, is a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before graduate school, she taught high school math in Boston. She researches algebraic reasoning, specifically how students generalize functional relationships and justify those generalizations.
