In response to the critical role that information and data play in our technological society, there have been national calls for reform in statistical education al all grade levels (Lajoie Romberg, 1998; National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, 1998; School Curriculum and Assessment Authority & Curriculum and Assessment Authority for Wales, 1996; Australian Education Council, 1994). These calls for reform have advocated a more pervasive approach to the study of statistics, one that includes describing, organizing and reducing, representing, and interpreting data. This broadened perspective has created the need for further research on the learning and teaching of statistics, especially at the elementary grades, where there has been a tendency to focus narrowly on some aspects of graphing rather than the broader topics of data handling and data analysis (Shaughness, Garfield, & Greer, 1996).
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