While both students made correct predictions, it would be difficult to classify
them at different levels of understanding. Karen appears to have partial mastery of
the formal terminology related to sampling distributions (normal distribution, the
bell-shaped curve), but is not able to explain in her own terms the process behind the
sampling distribution of the mean. Allie has more trouble finding the standard terms
and incorrectly applies the phrase “regression to the mean,” but seems to be viewing
the sampling distribution as a long-term process and to have more understanding of
the influences of the sample size on that process. Thus, students with different
mastery levels of the formal terminology can also show different abilities to
integrate the concepts and understand their statements.