THE ROLE OF CONTEXT IN YOUNG CHILDREN’S INTERPRETATION OF A DATA TABLE

This paper describes the role of data and task context in young children’s interpretation of and reasoning about data tables. A design-based descriptive study was conducted with fourteen 5-yearold children in their first year of formal schooling. A picture storybook provided the data context for a data modelling activity that focused on interpreting and analysing a data table. The children spontaneously read zero as a data value of interest and explained their interpretation of data using knowledge gleaned from the context of the storybook. Presenting the data pictorially and numerically using the structure of a table supported children’s successful reading and interpretation of the data. The structure and representation of the table facilitated development of statistical reasoning that was unexpected of children as young as 5 years.