ABSTRACT
Over the past decade, documents on mathematics education reform (e.g., National Council ofTeachers of Mathematics [NCTM), 1989) have highlighted the importance of including statistics and data analysis throughout the school mathematics curriculum. For many mathematics teachers, however, statistics continues to be a content area with which they have little experience. This may be due in part to the fact that mathematics is often taught as a discipline focused on procedures, yet only small parts of current conceptualizations of statistics fit within a procedural paradigm. The "reform view" of statistics demands that instruction be organized around critical inquiry rather than mastery of specified procedures. Statistical thinking provides a process for understanding the world. Those who engage in statistical thinking are engaged in making sense of their world, an activity that has considerable payoff not only in school mathematics but also in the world outside of school.
