Fielding-Wells, Jill

2018

Statistics in the early years is often limited to the construction and ‘reading’ of simple data representations as distinct from employing statistical inquiries that engage students with data in more authentic and meaningful contexts. One of the challenges of engaging with data inquiries is the extent to which students struggle with the lack of structure and direction, thus requiring additional support, or scaffolding. This chapter details the framework used for introducing statistical inquiry to young students and then provides insights that emerged from observation and analysis of a class of 5–6 year olds engaged in their own data investigation to illustrate. The findings suggest that considerable teacher scaffolding is required to progress students through inquiries and this was largely achieved through questioning employed to focus students on both the inquiry process and the statistical content to be addressed.

Statistics in Early Childhood and Primary Education: Supporting Early Statistical and Probabilistic Thinking, p. 109-127

9789811310447

9789811310430

9789811345548

https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/52369

Springer

Early Mathematics Learning and Development

1

Scaffolding Statistical Inquiries for Young Children

Book Chapter

Publication