The National Curriculum for Mathematics recently introduced to all state schools in any UK school curriculum. Help and support is constantly sought by both primary and secondary teachers now attempting to implement this new initiative. In my role as Project Officer: Data handling in the National Curriculum I am attempting to meet these needs. This initiative has given us the opportunity to review how statistics is taught in our schools and to develop new strategies to improve upon existing good practice. The heading given to the statistical content in the National Curriculum is Data Handling, an unfortunate title which implies a passive act. It is my belief that statistics is best taught through active statistical investigation, in real life, practical situations offering meaningful and enjoyable learning experiences. Examples of the materials I have produced were discussed and further references to other recent international curriculum developments made. Some of the implications of the"National Curriculum" on primary teaching, secondary teaching and teacher training (retraining) were also discussed.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education