GAISEing into the Future in New Zealand

• Activity Number: 371
• Type: Invited
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 6, 2008 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: International Association for Statistical Education
• Author(s): Chris J. Wild*+ and Nicholas J. Horton
• Companies: University of Auckland and Smith College
• Keywords: informal inference ; GAISE ; school curriculum ; supporting materials ; statistical literacy ; teacher development

Abstract

The 2005 GAISE report laid out a vision for Pre-K--12 US statistics education. Subsequently, New Zealand began developing a detailed national curriculum in the spirit of GAISE with increased emphasis on statistics. A high-level curriculum specification was finalized in 2007, and the next level of detail is under development. Translating high-level, forward-looking principles into a detailed reform curriculum is an enormous challenge. We need to plant the seeds in earlier years that can germinate and flower into fully fledged concepts at later years. Despite the NZ curriculum sharing a very similar philosophical base to GAISE, there are intriguing points of departure. We will compare and contrast GAISE and developments in NZ; confront the difficulties with teacher preparation, professional development, and creation of materials; and identify areas where we can leverage off one another.