COVID-19
and the need for
statistical literacy
The current Covid-19 situation has seen a plethora of data, statistics and predictions
presented to society—some making incredible claims. The authors are concerned that
statistics and probability still receive inadequate attention in the classroom, leaving
students without the statistical literacy needed to make sense of the claims being made.
Covid-19 has raised the visibility of data in
society more than any other event in recent
times. Although a crisis for society in both health
and economic spheres, Covid-19 also provides
a stimulus to examine the contribution that
education, particularly statistics education and
the Australian Curriculum, can make to preparing
society to understand the data and accompanying
arguments presented to them. This article argues
for more attention to be paid to Statistics by
documenting the presence of data analysis across
the curriculum and by presenting a selection of
activities judged to contribute to building greater
statistical understanding and literacy.
Topics related to statistics have been on Australia’s
national education scene since 1991, when Chance
and Data were included in A National Statement on
Mathematics for Australian Schools (Australian
Education Council [AEC]). As stated there,
A sound grasp of concepts in the areas of chance,
data handling and statistical inference is critical for
the levels of numeracy appropriate for informed
participation in society today. ‘Data’ provide us with
a powerful means of forming opinions and reaching
conclusions quite different from those we would
reach if we relied upon, for example, ‘authority’
or ‘hearsay’. Assessing the credibility of arguments
based on information given should be the basis
of the study of chance and data. (p. 163)
The bombardment of society with data, statistics,
predictions, and incredible claims with Covid-19 has
provided the most stark evidence supporting this state-
ment since it was written. Yes, Australians have followed
sporting statistics and predictions of their favourite
1. AAMT congratulates Rosemary Callingham for being made a Member of the
Order of Australia in the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Honours.
16 AMEJ 2 (2) 2020
1
Jane Watson Rosemary Callingham
University of Tasmania University of Tasmania
<Jane.Watson@utas.edu.au > <Rosemary.Callingham@utas.edu.au >
team’s success. Perhaps they have followed rises in the
stock market or in unemployment figures. Some will
have been interested in scientific data related to changes
in the environment and threats to its sustainability. It is
difficult to imagine any event in our lifetimes, however,
that has presented society with so much overwhelming
data in graphical representations and associated analyses
as Covid-19. The data and graphs have been everywhere,
everyday. The choices made by governments based
on this information have had a massive impact on all of
society. Of interest, one word heard very frequently with
the forecasts based on data has been “uncertainty”.
Despite the strong message in 1991, the impression
of these mathematics educators is that overall Chance
and Data, or as it is now called, Statistics and Probability,
continues to receive very limited attention in the class-
room. A perusal of NAPLAN items in this area of the
curriculum could give a hint as to why this is true. Figure 1
shows five items typical of the four year levels of NAPLAN.
They test a few isolated skills but not understanding of
statistical inference. As students perform relatively well
on them, teachers can feel confident to emphasise other
areas of the mathematics curriculum.
Statistics education has two general aims:
• to provide a statistically literate population able to
listen to, absorb, appreciate, and sometimes question
the data and inferences that appear in the media,
such as those associated with Covid-19; and
• to provide the foundation and motivation for some
students to become professional statisticians, able
to produce the data and inferences that will help
society solve social crises, such as Covid-19.
The statistics education research and teaching
community has been working for more than 30 years on
how to best educate teachers and students, as a recent
International Handbook has demonstrated (Ben-Zvi,
Makar, & Garfield, 2018). The foundation is an under-
standing of the practice of statistics, which is the basis

Year 3
Year 7
Figure 1. Example NAPLAN items for Data.
for statistical literacy. The practice of statistics is a cycle
based on investigating variation in contexts of interest
with these elements:
• Posing questions, anticipating variation.
• Planning for and collecting data, acknowledging
variation.
• Analysing data, using distributions to account
for variability.
• Interpreting the results, looking beyond the data
allowing for variability. (e.g., Franklin et al., 2007)
The practice of statistics can begin when students
are very young, becoming more sophisticated as more
complex tools and technologies are introduced over
the years. What is critical is that the practice of statistics
must take place within a context. Calculating the mean
of 10 numbers is arithmetic, not statistics. The mean is
a tool that is best used to answer a statistical question
in a context, be it science or sport or geography or
many others.
Covid-19 and the need for statistical literacy
Year 5
Year 9
Statistics across the curriculum
Returning to the 1991 National Statement (AEC) the
following is a specific direction that coincides with the
importance of context: “The teaching of Chance and Data
should be integrated throughout the curriculum, and
not be limited to mathematics lessons.” (p. 163). Today’s
Australian Curriculum (Australian Curriculum, Assessment
and Reporting Authority [ACARA], 2019) provides oppor-
tunities to do exactly this! And not only in mathematics. In
some curriculum areas the word ‘data’ specifically occurs
in the content descriptors and elaborations: for example,
26 times in Digital Technologies, 15 times in Science, 14
times in F–6/7 Humanities and Social Sciences, and 39
times in Geography 7–10. As well, in these areas of the
curriculum, there are indications of what is to be done with
the data. In Digital Technologies for example, there is a
sub-strand entitled “Collecting, managing, and analysing
data.” This is encouraging but needs to be seen as a tool
AMEJ 2 (2) 2020 17
 Watson & Callingham
for answering statistical questions and hence linked to the
“data representation and interpretation” sub-strand of
Statistics and Probability within Mathematics. In Science,
the Science Inquiry Skills major strand mirrors closely the
practice of statistics as reflected in data representation
and interpretation. Further it includes the importance of
communication of results (something perhaps the general
public is not aware of until society experiences a crisis
such as Covid-19).
There are examples in all curriculum areas including
Humanities and Social Sciences, which includes a major
strand titled “Inquiry and Skills” with sub-strands: ques-
tioning, researching, analysing, evaluating and reflecting,
and communicating. Even in the English curriculum,
the Literacy strand has a “texts in context sub-strand”
described as,
Texts and the context in which they are used.
How texts relate to their contexts and reflect the
society and culture in which they were created.
The mention of “context” here emphasises the same
foundation as in the practice of statistics, which cannot
occur without context. Across the years in English, the
verbs “identify,” “explain,” “analyse,” and “evaluate”
are used and from Year 6, media texts are emphasised,
including in Year 10 “how people, cultures, places,
events, objects and concepts are represented … through
language, structural and/or visual choices.” In some cases
surely statistical literacy is going to intersect with text
literacy for desired outcomes.
Examples from the classroom
As intimated in the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2019),
many opportunities exist across subject areas for students
to pose questions, collect and analyse data, and make
inferences. At times external data sources can be used as
well and often there are cross-curriculum links, especially
related to digital and design technologies. Considering
social science, Bush, Karp, Albanese, and Dillon (2014)
reported on an activity for Years 6 and 7, where students
devised questions and collected data to discover the
oldest person they had known. Scheaffer and Tabor
(2008) used the question of curfew times for females
and males to introduce simulation to more advanced
high school students.
Turning to Science, Finzer, Busey, and Kochevar
(2018) reported on students studying the movements
of elephant seals, white sharks, and bluefin tuna in the
Pacific Ocean, and the presence of chlorophyll, indicating
possible feeding grounds, using Digital Technologies.
Science can also be linked to Design and Technology,
such as in an activity where Year 5 students designed,
created, trialled, improved, and re-trialled mechanisms
for the dispersal of seeds in the wind (Smith, Fitzallen,
18 AMEJ 2 (2) 2020
Watson, & Wright, 2019). More links to design and technol-
ogy are found in activities where students build and test
paper airplanes, collecting data on the distance travelled
(Fielding-Wells, 2018; Reeder, 2012).
Links to Health and Physical Education are possible in
many ways. Selmer, Bolyard, and Rye (2011) suggested an
extended activity for middle school students, where they
investigated the dominant foods in their diets, including
the daily intake of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. Quite
relevant today is the suggestion of Stor and Briggs (1998)
of an activity for high school students using dice to model
the spread of a disease, at that time using AIDS and the
common cold as examples.
In both the health literacy sub-strand and English
Literacy strand parts of the curriculum, students are
expected to critically analyse reports in the media. An
example of this is a claim that brown-eyed people have
faster reaction times than those with other-coloured
eyes (Eye colour achievements, 2007). It was used in a
Year 10 class by the teacher to build critical statistical
literacy through testing the claim in the classroom (details
in Watson, 2008). In English Literacy, Year 4 mentions
“images, layout and content of contemporary texts” and
Year 10 notes how representations occur in media texts
through “language, structural and/or visual choices.”
These images and visual choices may well be graphical
representations and Watson (2015) discusses the impact
of choice of scale in graphs in presenting data and getting
the message across.
Looking at the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics,
elsewhere than Statistics and Probability, the possibilities
for developing statistical thinking in conjunction with
Measurement are many. The very notion that taking
measurements involves variation means that variation
needs to be taken into account when decisions are made
based on measurements, for example when measuring the
arm span of a single person repeatedly by the entire class,
measuring the arm spans of the entire class, comparing
the arm spans of two groups of students, or comparing
arm span with height or foot length. Data representations
are necessary in answering questions in all of these
contexts (Watson & Wright, 2008). Similar issues need to
be taken into account in measuring the height of a tree
(Brown, Watson, Wright, & Skalicky, 2011; Watson, Brown,
Wright, & Skalicky, 2011) or when considering mass when
manufacturing a product, such as licorice, by hand or by
machine (Watson, Skalicky, Fitzallen, & Wright, 2009).
A summary of activities that are appropriate for middle
school students and linked across the STEM disciplines is
presented in Fitzallen and Watson (2020), as are a wider
range of activities based on Open Data sources in Australia
suggested by Watson (2017). These open sources include
data on cricketers’ batting scores, the Royal Flying Doctor
service, Australia’s First Fleet, Australia’s Prime Ministers,
and temperatures over time in Australian capital cities.
 Covid-19 and the need for statistical literacy

Coming back to Covid-19, it is definitely a topic with different perspectives required in the two learning areas.
links to data across the curriculum: medical data on rates Applying the components of statistical literacy in
of infections, deaths, and recoveries; science data as the current Covid-19 environment requires knowing
vaccines are sought; social science data as the impact (i) the statistical tools, which include the graphical
on people’s lives is reported and economic predictions representations presented in the media. The Australian
are made; health data on recommendations for activities Broadcasting Corporation (Ting, Scott, & Workman, 2020)
for keeping fit physically and mentally; digital data on presents a vast collection of graphical representations,
the load impact of working at home and across nations; which are modified each day as data change. These require
design data on equipment and resources for workers in careful reading of the title, as well as scrutiny of the labels
many industries; and media misuse of data. All of these on coordinate axes, which may indicate, for example, time,
data require the thinking that can be developed across frequency, percentage, daily totals, moving averages, or
the curriculum over the school years, including within overlaid comparisons of different variables. Other graph-
Statistics and Probability. That this expectation is realistic ical forms include stem-and-leaf plots, pie charts, and
is supported by Harland (2011), who provides a Student geographical maps overlaid with circles of different radii
Research Handbook for STEM topics based directly on the representing frequencies of cases or deaths. Particular care
practice of statistics. Some students will also be inspired is needed when exponential growth is represented on a
to become statisticians and data scientists to help solve log scale. The need for (ii) contextual knowledge is implicit
the problems created by the next global crisis. That there in comprehending the messages that are displayed in the
will be careers waiting for them is clear. In Australia, the plots. What population/sample is being represented? What
University of Melbourne (2017) claims is the time frame involved? How were data collected and
by whom? With Covid-19, most students are aware of the
There is currently a very marked shortage of profes-
cultural context within which information is being provided
sional Statisticians across a range of disciplines in
Australia. … The need for Statisticians is more recog- because it affects their daily lives, but perhaps not specifi-
nised than ever before in Australia, and there are far cally with the context of a claim being made. The need for
more employment opportunities. (para. 7) (iii) critical literacy skills is paramount in deciphering the
interpretations of the data and associated claims, particu-
Statistical literacy larly with the “tsunami of information available in the wake
of the Covid-19 virus” (Ball, 2020). Ball acknowledges the
Not all students are expected to become statisticians need to develop an expanded literacy, including terms
but all students are expected to become statistically like personal protective equipment (PPE), the difference
literate citizens when they leave school. Statistical literacy between an epidemic and a pandemic, the values of the
is the meeting point of the practice of statistics and the R-number and their implications. Nyilasy (2020) considers
everyday world, where encounters involve unrehearsed the impact of fake news, noting, for example, a range of
contexts and spontaneous decision-making based on the claims, including whether the virus was created by one
ability to apply (i) statistical tools, (ii) general contextual country or another or the 5G network, and whether sipping
knowledge, and (iii) critical literacy skills (Watson, 2006, water every 15 minutes or taking hydroxychloroquine
p. 11). The experience of “practicing statistics” across the can provide quick remedies. The methods of Covid-19
school curriculum is intended to build the skills and under- transmission, even excluding suggestions of mosquitos
standing that prepare students to absorb and perhaps and pangolins, are complex, and students, like the general
question claims made more generally in society. Statistical population, require critical thinking skills to determine
literacy is a more specialised version of Quantitative which should be questioned. Although impressive efforts
Literacy (Watson, 2004), which is surely one of the aims are made internationally by fact-checkers to discredit fake
of the mathematics curriculum generally. news, for example analysed statistically by Brennen, Simon,
Howard, and Nielsen (2020), it is important that students
Teachers must hence take on the responsibility of
also become fact-checkers in their own right to question
using current affairs to challenge students to develop
critical skills in this area. Teachers across the curricu- claims made that sound “too good to be true” or appear
lum, not just in mathematics, share this responsibility. to be serving the interests of their proponents.
(Watson, 2006, p. 12)
After Covid-19
Covid-19 has forcefully illustrated this claim. Such links
can be foreshadowed while still in school, for example, Yes, Covid-19 will eventually be put to rest or controlled.
where health and physical education teachers could plan What next? Climate change has been pushed out of public
a health literacy unit together with mathematics teachers, consciousness by Covid-19 but is the “wicked” problem
in which the health aspects and the statistics are integrat- of our age (Murtugudde, 2019). Given that Sustainability
ed with both teachers using the same data to develop the is one of the Australian Curriculum’s cross-curriculum

AMEJ 2 (2) 2020 19

 Watson & Callingham
priorities (https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-
curriculum/cross-curriculum-priorities/sustainability/) now
is the time to take seriously its key concepts, organising
ideas (systems, world views, and futures), and learning
area statements across all learning areas. Among these
statements is the following:
Mathematical understandings and skills are
necessary to measure, monitor and quantify change
in social, economic and ecological systems over
time and statistical analysis enables the prediction
of probable futures based on findings and helps
inform decision-making and actions that will lead
to preferred futures. (ACARA, 2019)
Take for example, fracking, a controversial hydraulic
method of extracting gas from shale in the earth.
Although not actually having students collect data
themselves, Hendrickson (2015) had students search
for data to answer their questions related to the scientific
and social impact of fracking on their environment and
community. This issue is directly relevant to many stu-
dents in Australia who are aware of the pressures on their
localities of such practices, and the tension between the
need for employment and maintaining the environment.
Where can we start on the larger issues of sustainability
and climate change? One place is to have students ask
questions such as:
• Am I environmentally friendly?
• Is my class environmentally friendly?
• Are students in my year across Australia
environmentally friendly?
• What evidence do I have for my answers?
These questions then become the springboard for
an investigation using the practice of statistics. Year 5
students are capable of asking and answering these
questions (English & Watson, 2016; Watson & English,
2015). As mathematics teachers, we should not shy away
from controversial topics. Rather we should actively
seek out opportunities to collaborate with teachers from
learning areas across the curriculum in order to develop
in our students the much-needed statistical literacy.
Covid-19 has shown us how imperative this is. The use
of context in classrooms, however, can lead to unexpect-
ed consequences. Teachers need to be mindful of the
experiences of their students, because some contexts
have painful connotations for some students. Context is
not value-free and teachers must recognise this fact and
be aware of the range of opinions that may emerge.
Afterword
At the time of writing, Australia, along with New Zealand,
is gaining attention, particularly in the United States for
its handling of Covid-19 (Cave, 2020). In congratulating
the two countries for putting politics aside, the New York
Times quotes an Australian.
20 AMEJ 2 (2) 2020
“This [Australia] is certainly distinct from the United
States,” said Dr. Peter Collignon, a physician and
professor of microbiology at the Australian National
University who has worked for the World Health
Organization. “Here it’s not a time for politics. This is
a time for looking at the data and saying let’s do what
makes the most sense.
“Data” is the word that needs to be emphasised, in the
hope that data and statistics will continue to be a driving
force balancing other critical issues facing society into
the future.
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This image provides
a possible discussion
point for teachers
Ask students to speculate,
“What have the values
been calculated with
reference to, and why are
so many decimal places
needed?” This confirms
the point that ‘statistics
without context are just
meaningless numbers’.
AMEJ 2 (2) 2020 21
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