A Search for Statistical Fallacies within the Senior High School Textbooks

Given the extent to which statistics are used in today’s lives, any misguided utilization of numerical data can be considered a weapon of destruction and harm. Ways by which statistics are misused are known, and knowing them can help with the development of a critical view in regards to statistics. To assess the extent to which the coverage of Statistics in the high school textbooks includes familiarization of students with statistical fallacies, senior high school textbooks on mathematics in all three areas of study were content analyzed to determine the coverage of topics such as inaccurate explanations, unreasonable claims, and misguided relevancies. The findings show that from among the three areas of high school study, the textbooks for the experimental science area, as well as those for the Math & Physics area of study, have the least coverage of statistical fallacies. Given the fact that most of the junior high school graduates attend these two areas when attending high school, it can be expected that in the future most of our high school graduates would lack a critical view of statistics.