Toward a taxonomy of research on statistical knowledge for teaching

The knowledge needed to teach statistics overlaps with, but is not limited to, the knowledge needed to do statistics. Hence, research on statistical knowledge for teaching should not be limited to the study of teachers’ subject matter knowledge. This article outlines a taxonomy describing multiple foci for research on statistical knowledge for teaching. The theoretical structure for the taxonomy is sketched and then stress-tested using a collection of articles from the Statistics Education Research Journal. Challenges of using the taxonomy to categorize research are made explicit, and ideas for navigating them are provided. It is shown how the taxonomy can serve as a framework to track the prevalence of various research foci in the field and plan future studies. Directions for future scholarship to refine the taxonomy itself are also proposed.