Statistics in the Mathematics Curricula in Bulgaria

Introduction

Mathematics and statistics literacy is gaining importance in the contemporary period as smart digital technologies are becoming dominant in developed countries. A whole new concept of education has emerged as a response to the needs of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, characterized by a life-long learning process, more personalized and continuous (“Education 4.0”). Teaching is taking place in various forms in and outside the classroom, using various types of technologies, field works, communication and evaluation methods; it is more adapted to the practical needs, more flexible in time and space.

In this situation, school education has to be updated in order to meet the new challenges; new educational settings and methods have to be developed, enabling the young generation to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary for their performance in a digital-driven world. In this regard, one important step is to update the school mathematics curricula, especially in the section of statistics. It is becoming clear that personal success in many fields of life depends on the quality of mathematical and statistical literacy acquired in school. Moreover, the economic prosperity of every country in the current era will also depend on the literacy of its citizens, combined with their ability to work with modern technologies. Therefore one of the central tasks of school education in the modern era is to create favorable conditions for students and for teachers. This means that a new concept of teaching and learning is evolving, with greater freedom of choice, and more attention to developing a student’s capacity for creative thinking and decision making. In this context, education in mathematics and statistics has to be adapted to the new technological environment, as it has to play an important role for the literacy of the younger generation and of the society as a whole.

The purpose of this chapter is to explain the present state of the curricula in mathematics and statistics in secondary schools in Bulgaria and to propose recommendations for its further improvements. The present state of teaching statistics in schools in some other countries – France, Belgium, Italy and the United States – is briefly outlined with respect to the studied subject, in order to provide a comparative perspective to the research. Proposals for future steps in reforming the mathematics school curricula in Bulgaria are presented, namely for the section on Probabilities and statistics.