Stochastic and Deterministic Views of Statistics: A Pedagogical Perspective

Learning and teaching statistics is a juxtaposition of two lines of reasoning—deterministic and stochastic. Research has shown that the deterministic line of reasoning is in a superior position to stochastic reasoning. Hence, the stochastic line of reasoning must be strengthened to create a better balance between the two lines in order to work toward better statistics learning and teaching. By placing greater emphasis on variability in the data, we will contribute to better stochastic reasoning. This paper adopts the variation theory of learning approach as a pedagogical tool to emphasize variability in statistics and to help students develop their stochastic reasoning. This, we claim, might lead to the sustainable learning of statistics.