Contributed paper list


   (Wednesday 16th, 10:55-12:25)   In session C10B

Teaching statistics in a mathematics course in middle school: interdisciplinarity, really?

Authors

Annie Savard, Dominic Manuel

Presenter

Annie Savard (Canada)

Abstract

Statistics is a domain combined with probability that is taught in Mathematics in all school levels. We suggest a potential in using an interdisciplinary approach with this concept, which, according to Fourez & Larochelle (2003), implies that the development of one discipline contributes to the development of others. Thus the development of the understanding of a situation might mean to use both mathematical and statistical reasoning. In this paper, we present a case study where a middle school Mathematics teacher created a lesson in Statistics where the students had the task to study a pack of colored candy and create a pie graph representing its distribution. The teacher hoped that her students made links between mathematical concepts while doing this task. Results show us that her procedural vision of Statistics lead her to focus more on a graphical representation and thus led her to avoid all statistical reasoning development (Garfield, 2002).