Statistics are pervasive in our society yet the understanding of statistics has remained the domain of a select few. Although the majority of the literature has focused on the adult learner, there is a movement towards teaching statistics to childern. This paper addresses the ways in which statistics has been examined in the elementary and secondary schools in terms of content, readiness to learn, pedagogy, and assessment. We conclude with a proposal for how a cognitive apprenticeship model can be developed from the empirical research findings to build more effective instructional and assessment methods for statistics education. Further empirical work may highlight other components of statistical proficiency that should be modeled for learners.
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