Putting Essential Understanding into Practice: Statistics, 9–12

Do your students think that a sample, regardless of size, always has the same characteristics as the population from which it is drawn? Do they know the difference between the distribution of a sample and the sampling distribution of a statistic? What tasks can you offer, and what questions can you ask, to determine what your students know or don't know--and move them forward in their thinking? This book focuses on the specialized pedagogical content knowledge that you need to teach statistics effectively in grades 9-12. The authors demonstrate how to use this multifaceted knowledge to address the big ideas and essential understandings that students must develop for success with statistics--not only in their current work, but also in higher-level mathematics and a myriad of real-world contexts. Explore rich, research-based strategies and tasks that show how students are reasoning about and making sense of statistics. Use the opportunities that these and similar tasks provide to build on their understanding while identifying and correcting misunderstandings that may be keeping them from taking the next steps in learning.