About the Book
Develop curious minds. Empower every learner. Shape the future.
How can we prepare students for a world where data-driven decision-making shapes nearly every aspect of life? Data Minds: How Today’s Teachers Can Prepare Students for Tomorrow’s World helps K–8 educators infuse data literacy into everyday lessons across disciplines, without overwhelming existing curricula. Data literacy is an ability and willingness to engage with and understand data in the world, and it can be incorporated throughout the school day to encourage student agency.
Legendary educators Jo Boaler and Cathy Williams inspire teachers to develop "data minds" in their students—fostering analytical, creative, and skeptical thinkers who can successfully navigate the data-rich world.
Aligned with current math, STEM, and GAISE II standards, this book
- Provides innovative, real-world stories from classrooms across the globe, offering inspiration and insight from other educators
- Highlights five key habits of mind that position students actively, giving them a role in seeking and investigating knowledge deeply
- Includes engaging and fascinating examples of data visualizations that demonstrate that data analysis goes way beyond charts and strings of numbers
- Offers flexible frameworks, including the Four-Part Data Cycle, that focus on asking questions, analyzing patterns, and developing multi-modal representations like graphs, maps, and even art pieces
- Presents extensive teacher "data moves," reflection questions, and examples in each chapter showing how to connect lessons to students’ interests, from oceanography to basketball
- Includes online access to free professional development resources and accompanying lessons through Stanford University’s youcubed
From forming data questions to cultivating creativity, Data Minds will help educators turn every lesson into an opportunity for meaningful discovery. By integrating data literacy into the curriculum, teachers can unlock new levels of student engagement at the same time they are preparing learners for the demands of tomorrow′s workforce.
Table of Contents:
How to Read This Book
Chapter 1: Why Our Students Need Data Minds
Chapter 2: Asking Questions
Chapter 3: Pattern Seeking
Chapter 4: Creating Data Representations
Chapter 5: Improving the World With Data
Chapter 6: More Data Teaching Moves
Chapter 7: A Call to Action
References
Index
About the Author :
Dr. Jo Boaler is the Nomellini Olivier Professor of Education at Stanford University. Previously she has served as the Marie Curie Professor of Mathematics Education in England and a maths teacher in London comprehensive schools. Her PhD won the national award for educational research in the UK. She is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (Great Britain), and a former president of the International Organization for Women and Mathematics Education (IOWME). She is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Early Career Award, the NCSM Kay Gilliland Equity Award (2014) and the CMC Walter Denham Mathematics Leadership award (2015). She is an elected fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (fRSA) and a White House presenter on women and girls. She co-founded www.youcubed.org, a free website that gives teachers, parents and students the resources and ideas they need to inspire and excite students about mathematics. She is the author of 20 books and numerous research articles; her work has been published in the New York Times, TIME magazine, The Telegraph, The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal and many other news outlets. She was one of the writing team for the 2023 California Mathematics Framework, is co-leading a K-12 Data Science Initiative, and was named as one of the 8 educators “changing the face of education” by the BBC.
Cathy Williams is a passionate mathematics educator, author, and advocate for innovative teaching. With more than 18 years as a high school mathematics teacher and AVID coordinator, followed by a decade as a mathematics administrator in San Diego County, Cathy has dedicated her career to transforming how students and teachers engage with mathematics. As the co-founder and Executive Director of youcubed at Stanford University, Cathy has played a pivotal role in developing research-based curricula, coaching educators, and delivering professional development worldwide. Her work fosters mathematical mindsets, visual learning, and deep conceptual understanding. Cathy is an advisor to mathematics education technology startups and a widely recognized speaker.
Review :
Data Minds is an absolute masterpiece. It is the first book I’ve read that effectively puts the tools of teaching data skills into the hands of teachers. This book should be required reading for everyone involved in K–12 education.
Data Minds is a breath of fresh air for the mathematics community. In this publication, Boaler and Williams provide teachers with a blueprint on how to infuse data literacy in the mathematics classroom. I especially love the emphasis on helping students become ‘question askers.’ This mindset will go a long way toward helping all students become connoisseurs of data.
In the postfactual world where the distinction between opinions and facts are blurred, it is more important than ever that our students become data literate. This book shows us how to do this—not through massive revisions to curriculum, but through small changes we can make in our teaching. Through real classroom examples, Jo Boaler and Cathy Williams show us how to easily tap into students’ natural curiosity about information to effectively build the data literate students our world needs.
I love Data Minds’ call to educators to ‘teach with a data flair!’ Through a range of interesting examples, Boaler and Williams illustrate how teachers’ choices deeply shape students’ learning experiences.
Jo Boaler and Cathy Willams are at it again—dropping another banger for math educators! This book makes data cool, relevant, and totally accessible. From real-world investigations to cross-curricular magic, Jo and Cathy show us how to turn data into a powerful tool for student curiosity and critical thinking. It’s the resource you didn’t know you were missing—but won’t want to teach without.
As the world becomes increasingly data-driven, it is vital that students have opportunities to become data literate. Boaler and Williams provide an outstanding resource for educators to create such opportunities. Walking readers through the data learning cycle deepens understanding, providing professional development to implement data literacy. The data teaching moves throughout the book are fantastic and provide concrete steps all educators can take in creating opportunities for students to learn.
I absolutely love what Jo Boaler and Cathy Williams have done in Data Minds! This book is a breath of fresh air for teachers who want to make learning exciting and rooted in the real world, without adding more content. It shows how students can get curious, ask BIG questions, and use data to understand the world around them (and even make it better!). The stories in here are inspiring and full of heart! If you’ve ever wondered how to bring data to life in your classroom, this book is your new best friend!
Data Minds is a must-read, whether you’re new to teaching with data or looking to go deeper. Full of actionable teacher moves and grounded in rich, real-world classroom examples from around the globe, it connects math with other content areas across grade levels and helps teachers support students in developing critical data-thinking skills in an era flooded with misinformation.
In Data Minds, Jo Boaler and Cathy Williams don’t just tell, they show us the importance of interrogating the data we ingest every day in dizzying quantities. Through classroom case studies and data teaching moves, the authors model an inquiry pedagogy that fosters data literacy among educators and learners. With the rise of misinformation, this call to critical consciousness around the role of data in teaching and society could not be more timely.
