Statistics in primary education!

Statistics is one of the branches of knowledge of Mathematics that should be taught in primary school. However, on some occasion, it isn't taught. Firstly, we should now that the introduction of statistics as well as probability into primary education it is a response to the necessity of fostering the learning of gathering, description and interpretation of data by children (Alsina, 2016). Nowadays, the teaching of these skills to children seems to be more necessary. They live in a world full of information in which having the ability to interpret and discern data from different sources is essential.

From the first cycle of primary education until the last, we should contribute to the development of those skills. According to the studies of Fischbein, from years old children can manage random situations and therefore their cognitive development will allow its teaching. 

Statistics is something that is in almost every field of life, so the creation of activities that foster the application of the new knowledge into real situations closed to students will facilitate its learning. Besides, making students the protagonist of their learning will be a key component. Therefore, we can get a huge variety of resources from newspapers or even use real and interesting objects as for instance chocolate to teach it.

Practical ideas

We can work statistics is the creation of a project in which they have to compare their expectations about the likes or dislikes that generate a cartoon among their classmates, with reality. By this way, they will have the opportunity of observing the differences. This type of project can be adapted to different ages, especial from the second cycle to the third cycle. However, in both cases, will be interesting for students to make predictions, to gather information and to get conclusión about the information. Methodologies as the cooperative learning or the work by projects that involves others aspects and field of knowledge will foster the teaching of statistics in a motivational way.

Also, we can state a problem that they will have to find the answer so they will have to investigate by groups, gathering information, interpreting it and applying their knowledge about statistics. With the oldest students, we can create a problem in which they have also to contras the information with accurate data. In this type of activity, the webpage Gapminder can be a useful tool to check the information. 

This webpage provides information about different real topics of society and provides it with graphics, so students can learn to read it, as well as to verify their investigations. It is a very useful tool since it allows you to interact with the information and it works without wifi connections which is always an advantage!

Finally, I want to encourage you to research the teaching of statistics to implement it in a proper and funny way to students. I leave you this short video about the advantages of implementing statistics in schools. In the video, you will hear the experience of teachers that they are currently in its teaching. I hope you like it and get useful information from it!

References:

Alsina, A. (2016). La estadística y la probabilidad en educación primaria ¿Dónde estamos y hacia dónde debemos it? Aula 251, 12-17. https://consejoescolar.educacion.navarra.es/web1/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/682.pdf