STATISTICS EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE IASE

For some time, New Zealand has been leading the world in terms of the focus and scope of its statistics curriculum in schools. The curriculum is characterised by its data handling, and in more recent years, data visualisation approach. In 2013 bootstrapping and randomisation will be added to the curriculum achievement objectives for the senior secondary school (Ministry of Education, 2012). This paper gives an historical perspective of the people and groups that have influenced the development of the New Zealand curriculum and outlines the influence and impact of some of these New Zealanders, such as Professors David Vere-Jones and Chris Wild together with Maxine Pfannkuch and John Harraway, on the International Association for Statistical Education (IASE). The roles of both the IASE and the local professional statisticians ’ association, the New Zealand Statistical Association (NZSA), are discussed together with the possible long-term impact of new statistical literacy based school curriculum in New Zealand on tertiary statistics teaching. Key words: history of the IASE, statistics education in New Zealand, school statistics curricula, data handling, data visualisatio