Abstract: Concerns about students. difficulties in statistical reasoning led to a study which explored Form Five (14 to 16-year-olds) students. ideas in this area. The study focussed on sampling, probability, descriptive statistics and graphical representations. This paper presents and discusses the ways in which these students made sense of sampling constructs obtained from the individual interviews. The findings revealed that many of the students used strategies based on prior experiences and intuitive strategies. While they showed competence with sample size, they were less competent on the sampling variability task. This could be due to instructional neglect of this concept or linguistic problems. The paper concludes by suggesting some implications for further research.
