The development of students' thinking in chance and data

Abstract

Increased emphasis on Chance & Data in the mathematics curriculum calls for teachers to have a greater understanding of the development of students' thinking in probability and statistics. Recent research with students and teachers has facilitated the development of frameworks for students' thinking in both domains. The purposes of the frameworks are to describe students' thinking in terms of levels across the concepts in chance and data, and to inform teachers' planning of suitable learning activities. This paper outlines two such frameworks developed by Jones et al. (1997, 2001) one for statistical thinking and one for probabilistic reasoning and describes their implications for teaching and planning of instruction.