Prerequisites for understanding statistics about society: the interplay of context knowledge, statistical thinking, and critical thinking

Abstract

Dealing with statistics about society in the classroom raises questions about instructional goals, such as, for instance “Is using statistics about society (instead of other statistics) in the classroom a goal in itself?” or “Is statistics education around statistics about society thinkable which does not aim at fostering statistical literacy and statistical thinking in some form?”, and it raises questions about the learners’ needs for understanding statistics about society, e.g. “For facilitating the understanding of statistics about society, should we foster statistical literacy, critical thinking, and context knowledge?”. This points not only to a need of avoiding a too narrow focus in statistics education, but also to a need of knowing more about the interplay of these three variables when learners make sense of statistics about society. The poster presents a corresponding relationship model which suggests that the statistical thinking necessary for understanding statistics about society is supported by critical thinking and knowledge/views about the context. However, evidence about the interplay of the three factors in the model is scarce. In particular, when being confronted with representations of data about society and having to make sense of it, does critical thinking and context knowledge always play a supporting role or can they on the contrary even impede statistical thinking?