A Study on the Analysis of Mathematics Curriculum and Textbooks Regarding Representative Values from the Perspective of Statistics Education

The purpose of this study is to examine how the concept of representative values has been addressed in the curriculum and textbooks throughout the history of Korea’s mathematics curriculum, and to derive pedagogical implications for teaching the data and probability domain in middle school. To achieve this, this study collected official mathematics curriculum documents promulgated in Korea and analyzed the teaching and learning content and methods related to representative values for each curriculum period. Additionally, it investigated the differences and trends across curriculum periods. Furthermore, this study analyzed 46 middle school textbooks, including those reflecting the 2007 Revised Curriculum through the 2022 Revised Curriculum. Using an analytical framework based on four characteristics of data―(1) the type of data, (2) the presence of extreme values, (3) the overall distribution of the data, and (4) the properties of a good estimator―it examined the types and features of inquiry activities used to introduce representative values in textbooks across curriculum periods. It also explored the types and trends of problems reflecting the connections between various visual representations and representative values. The findings indicate that while almost all textbooks explicitly or implicitly reflect factors such as the purpose of the data, the form of the data, the presence of extreme values, and the properties of a good estimator in the development of the representative value unit, relatively few textbooks consider the overall distribution of the data. Based on these findings, this study provides pedagogical implications and recommendations that teachers can reference when designing and implementing lessons on data and probability domain for middle school.