An inquiry perspective on statistics in lower secondary school in Denmark and Japan–An elaboration and modelling of the anthropological theory of the didactic through two statistics classrooms

We present a detailed analysis of two statistics lessons in lower secondary school, one in Denmark and the other in Japan. The aim of the study is to better understand how inquiry perspectives are implemented in statistics education and what cultural factors shape them. In particular, we draw on the theoretical framework of the Anthropological Theory of the Didactic. The first impressions of the lessons changed during the analysis, and the main differences became explicit in the two question and answer diagrams and the praxeological analysis of the lessons. The two lessons involved cases comprising an “experimental activity with many questions” (Denmark) and “structured problem-solving” (Japan), which differed on a number of points that we shall demonstrate in the analysis. We shall also discuss hypotheses on the possible causes of these differences. We emphasize that our use of question and answer diagrams offers a new way in which to distinguish various kinds of “inquiry-oriented” lessons.