This paper is from Session 2A: Learners’ first experiences of handling data — focusing on 7 to 13 year olds

which comes under Topic 2: Statistics education at the school level

Other papers under session 2A ... 2A1: National testing of data handling in years 3, 5 and 7 in Australia 2A2: Does context expertise make a difference when dealing with data? 2A4: Engaging young children in informal statistical inference

(Monday 12th, 14:00-16:00)

Linking problems, conclusions and evidence: primary students’ early experiences of planning statistical investigations

Presenter

• Jill Fielding-Wells (University of Queensland, Australia)

Abstract

An overview of many primary programs demonstrates the passivity of statistical learning in the junior years. Students are usually provided clean, orderly, simplistic data, or data representations, with which to work. When students are encouraged to collect their own data, it is limited to that which could be expected to cause little difficulty. The focus on contrived and unsophisticated data collection and analysis denies younger students the opportunity to design their own statistical investigations. The research reported here derives from the introduction of the statistical investigative cycle (Wild and Pfannkuch, 1999) to a classroom of 9-10 year old students. The students initially experienced difficulty envisioning the investigation process, despite both explicit instruction and multiple prior experiences with investigative learning. A focus on connecting problems and conclusions to evidence enabled students to plan investigations more efficiently.

Other papers under session 2A ... 2A1: National testing of data handling in years 3, 5 and 7 in Australia 2A2: Does context expertise make a difference when dealing with data? 2A4: Engaging young children in informal statistical inference