Laying the foundations for inference

From the second plenary session at the 2009 Statistics Teachers’ Day.

Immersing Year 10 students in ideas about sample, population, sampling variability, and “making a call” is essential for laying the foundations for the NCEA Standard 1.10 on comparing box plots. Our current research shows that as teachers we have much to learn about how best to facilitate students’ understanding of these ideas. It also shows that students need at least two years to develop the reasoning and thinking required for NCEA level one statistics standards.