Reconceptualizing Statistical Learning in the Early Years
This chapter argues for the need to restructure children’s statistical experiences from the beginning years of formal schooling, with a particular focus on data modelling. An increasingly important component of young children’s mathematical development, d
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Introduction This chapter argues for the need to restructure children’s statistical experiences from the beginning years of formal schooling. The ability to understand and apply statistical reasoning is paramount across all walks of life, as seen in the variety of graphs, tables, diagrams, and other data representations requiring interpretation. Young children are immersed in our data-driven society, with early access to computer technology and daily exposure to the mass media. With the rate of data proliferation have come increased calls for advancing children’s statistical reasoning abilities, commencing with the earliest years of schooling (e.g., Langrall et al. 2008; Lehrer and Schauble 2005; Shaughnessy 2010; Whitin and Whitin 2011). Several articles (e.g., Franklin and Garfield 2006; Langrall et al. 2008) and policy documents (e.g., National Council of Teachers of Mathematics 2006) have highlighted the need for a renewed focus on this component of early mathematics learning, with children working mathematically and scientifically in dealing with realworld data. One approach to this component in the beginning school years is through data modelling (English 2010; Lehrer and Romberg 1996; Lehrer and Schauble 2000, 2007). Data modelling is a developmental process, beginning with young children’s inquiries and investigations of meaningful phenomena, progressing to identifying various attributes of the phenomena, and then moving towards organising, structuring, visualising, and representing data (Lehrer and Lesh 2003). As one of the major thematic “big ideas” in mathematics and science (Lehrer and Schauble 2000, 2005), data modelling should be a fundamental component of early childhood curricula. Limited research exists, however, on such modelling and how it can be fostered in the early school years. The bulk of the research has focused on secondary and tertiary levels, with the assumption that primary school children are unable to develop L.D. English (B) Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia e-mail: [email protected] L.D. English, J.T. Mulligan (eds.), Reconceptualizing Early Mathematics Learning, Advances in Mathematics Education, DOI 10.1007/978-94-007-6440-8_5, © Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013
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their own models and sense-making systems for dealing with complex situations (Greer et al. 2007). Recent research has indicated that young children do possess many conceptual resources that, with appropriately designed and implemented learning experiences, can be bootstrapped toward sophisticated forms of reasoning not typically seen in the early grades (e.g., Clarke et al. 2006; Clements et al. 2011; English and Watters 2005; Lesh and English 2005; Papic et al. 2011; Perry and Dockett 2008). Most research on early mathematics learning has been restricted to an analysis of children’s actual developmental level, which has failed to illuminate children’s potential for learning under stimulating conditions that challenge their thinking. “Research on children’s c
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