Inproceedings,
Re-thinking co-variation from a quantitative perspective: Simultaneous continuous variation
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Psychology of Mathematics Education - North America, Raleigh, NC, North Carolina State University, (1998)
Abstract
Confrey and Smith (1994, 1995) explicate a notion of covariation that entails moving
between successive values of one variable and coordinating this with moving between
corresponding successive values of another variable (1994, p.33). They also explain, “in a
covariation approach, a function is understood as the juxtaposition of two sequences, each of which
is generated independently through a pattern of data values” (1995, p. 67). Coulombe and
Berenson build on these definitions, and on ideas discussed by Thompson and Thompson (1994b,
1996), to describe a concept of covariation that entails these properties: “(a) the identification of
two data sets, (b) the coordination of two data patterns to form associations between increasing,
decreasing, and constant patterns, (c) the linking of two data patterns to establish specific
connections between data values, and (d) the generalization of the link to predict unknown data
values.” (p. 88)
