1. Changes in our Co-ordinators

2. PME25, Utrecht, 2001

3. New Web-Site

4. Summary of Forthcoming Statistical Education Activities

4. Next Newsletter

Earlier in the year Dani Ben-Zvi resigned as a co-ordinator of this group with effect from 1 Jan 2001, because of the pressure of other duties, which include acting as secretary to the organising committee for ICOTS 2002. Kath and I first met Dani in front of the Parador in Arcos de la Frontera during the ICME8 tours from Seville while we were waiting to go in for lunch. It was a fortunate meeting, and Dani’s lively and authoritative company was a perfect complement to an excellent meal. In 1998 I heard him talk at ICOTS on his research into the learning of statistics where he told us of a very imaginative and perceptive study.

We asked Dani to help us co-ordinate the Study Group for PME in Haifa in 1999 and he brought great enthusiasm, determination and common sense to the job. More importantly, he brought in new ideas and approaches, and these bore fruit in Hiroshima in 2000 where we had a very fruitful set of discussions. He, with the help of his son, has developed and maintained the Group’s web-site which, as well as the standard material, includes a set of links to a rich variety of stochastics education resources. He has been a meticulous checker of my Newsletter drafts, and has worked hard to keep a wide variety of activities in front of members.

On behalf of the Group I should like to express our thanks to Dani for all that he has done for us and to wish him well in the projects with which he is continuing.

Fortunately, Antonio Estepa has agreed to take over the web-site and the mailing lists, and the web-site is now up and running. Antonio Estepa is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Didactic of Science, at the University of Jaen in Spain. He teaches mathematics education to undergraduate students. His PhD is in students’ understanding of the ideas of statistical association, and he continues to do work in this field. Some of this work has been published in English, and it is a very useful contribution to improving the teaching of tertiary statistics.

Kath and I first met Antonio when he presented a paper at PME in Valencia in 1996. He had only just started to learn English and was very courageous in being willing stand up in front of so many people to present his work. Two years later we met him at ICOTS after he had had two years of careful study and were able to congratulate him on how well he had conquered our difficult language. He is a very pleasant and charming man, and we are very pleased that he now feels confident enough to take on this task for the group.

Thank you, Antonio, for taking on this task, and for working with Dani to effect the transfer of the site.

Finally, Brian Greer is not leaving us, but has moved from Belfast to the University of San Diego in California. We wish him well in his new position and in adjusting to a new culture.

You will find our Web-Site now located at

You may be interested to look at the list of members. Some of the members have sent us short details of their work and interests, and Antonio would be happy to add more such notes to the site.

The Discussion Group will run again during the meeting in Utrecht, The Netherlands, from Thursday 12 July to Tuesday 17 July 2001. It now seems highly likely that Brian, Kath and John will all be present. We intend to have some structured discussions in the same was that we did in Hiroshima, and these will be co-ordinated by Kath.

All members who intend to be at PME25 are invited to make a short presentation (10 minutes) on some aspect of the theme. This would be followed by 20–30 minutes discussion. We have not had as many offers as we should have liked yet. Please make brief submissions to Kath at <Kath.Truran@unisa.edu.au>, preferably by 31 December. (Make preparing something for the Study Group one of your last acts of the present Millennium.)

Our discussions will be on the relationship between stochastical and mathematical thinking, learning, and teaching. It is our intention to approach this theme from multiple perspectives, including:

• Philosophical, in terms of the perceived boundaries of the disciplines.

• Historical, in terms of the developments of the disciplines.

• Educational, in terms of the positioning and implementation of the teaching and learning of stochastics within school and tertiary curricula, including such fundamental issues as teacher development, assessment, and technology.

• Psychological, in terms of the specific cognitive and sociocultural processes involved in the teaching and learning of stochastics.

• Research, in terms of cross-fertilisation of theoretical frameworks and methodologies.

The 53rd Session of the International Statistical Institute, August 22-29, 2001, Seoul, Korea. See: <http://www.nso.go.kr/isi2001/>.

For the IASE Sessions at ISI-53 see: <http://www.swin.edu.au/maths/iase/isi53.html>.

A pre-conference satellite workshop on statistical literacy is also planned.

The IASE Sixth International Conference on Teaching Statistics, July 7-12, 2002, Durban, South Africa. This is the major international conference in Statistics Education that is held every 4 years. Planning for ICOTS-6 is well under way. Details can be found at the ICOTS-6 web site at: <http://www.beeri.org.il/icots6>.