ABSTRACT
As with the previous chapter the English National Curriculum and the Early Learning Goals do not explicitly state objectives for data handling. I do think it is valuable for children in the early years to explore data handling activities not least because though these activities they will develop an understanding of the meaning of numbers when applied to this sort of an investigation. In the New Zealand curriculum there is an explicit objective under the heading of “statistics”. This objective suggests that:
Within a range of meaningful contexts [children] should be able to collect everyday objects, sort them into categories, count the number of objects in each category and display and discuss the results.
