This article explores 6th-grade students' modelling with data in generating models for selecting an Australian swimming team for the (then) forthcoming 2016 Olympics, using data on swimmers' times at various previous events. We propose a modelling framework comprising four components: working in shared problem spaces between mathematics and…

This paper reports on a study of 3rd-grade students' modeling with data, which involves comprehensive investigations that draw upon STEM-based concepts, contexts, and questions, and generate products supported by evidence and open to informal inferential thinking. Within a real-world STEM-based context of licorice manufacturing, students…

The practice of statistics is the focus of the world in which professional statisticians live. To understand meaningfully what this practice is about, students need to engage in it themselves. Acknowledging the limitations of a genuine classroom setting, this study attempted to expose four classes of year 5 students (n?=?91) to an authentic…

The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) continues to emphasize the importance of early statistical learning; data analysis and probability was the Council's professional development "Focus of the Year" for 2007-2008. Such a focus is needed, especially given the results of the statistics items from the 2003 NAEP. As…

An exciting event had occurred for the grade 3 classes at Woodlands State School. A new play space designated for the older grades had now been opened to the third graders. In sharing their excitement over this "real treat, real privilege," the teachers invited the children to find out more about playgrounds and, in particular, their new…

This paper argues for a renewed focus on statistical reasoning in the beginning school years, with opportunities for children to engage in data modelling. Results are reported from the first year of a 3-year longitudinal study in which three classes of first-grade children (6-year-olds) and their teachers engaged in data modelling activities. The…

An educational priority of many nations is to enhance mathematical learning in early childhood. One area in need of special attention is that of statistics. This paper argues for a renewed focus on statistical reasoning in the beginning school years, with opportunities for children to engage in data modelling activities. Such modelling involves…

We report on how two middle-grade teachers supported their students' mathematical reasoning within the context of a novel modeling task in data analysis. We examine how the task features supported the development of teachers' knowledge as their students engaged with the task. Analyses of the teachers' practices suggest that the task features…

Discusses the nature of tasks used to elicit the development of such systems by middle school students. Analyzes mathematical reasoning development of students across tasks and the diversity of thinking patterns identified on problem tasks. Discusses student reasoning about the relationships between and among quantities and their application in…

Traditional word problems have not fulfilled the goal of mathematical sense-making for many students. Some studies have shown that authentic contexts, such as model-eliciting tasks, have the potential to engage students in making sense of realistic situations. However, there has been little research on the kinds of knowledge needed by teachers to…

This paper addresses components of a 3-year longitudinal study in which 9th and 10th grade students in Australia, Canada, and Zambia participated in data-handling programs through networked learning communities. Of interest here are the students' responses to a selection of "ends-in-view" problems, which formed the major part of the…

In this article we explore young children's development of mathematical knowledge and reasoning processes as they worked two modelling problems (the "Butter Beans Problem" and the "Airplane Problem"). The problems involve authentic situations that need to be interpreted and described in mathematical ways. Both problems include tables of data,…