The development of statistical understanding at the elementary school level

The massive increase in infonnation and data available in the 21st century is putting increasing pressure on school curricula around the world to prepare students to meet the demands of using the information and data for the good of society. Finding the place in an already crowded curriculum for the technological and statistical literacy skills is not easy. The needs are present across the curriculum but thus far statistical thinking has usually been placed within the mathematics curriculum under such headings as "data and chance" or "data handling. " Various suggestions have been made concerning what content should be introduced at different year levels. This paper does not make specific suggestions for students at different years of school or ages because of differences acrOss countries but presents a developmental picture of statistical understanding from early childhood across the elementary into the middle school years. Knowing where a child currently is in the developmental sequences can indicate what activities can assist movement to higher levels. of understanding. It is hoped that greater appreciation of the potential for developing statistical understanding will influence curriculum developers to find a place, integrated across the traditional disciplines, to build the foundations required for critical statistical literacy in the adult world.