This paper is from Session 6H: Post-secondary Conceptions of Probability
which comes under Topic 6: Innovations in teaching probability
Paper 6H1 (Monday 9th, 16:00-17:30)
Students' Conveyed Meanings for Probability
Presenter
- Neil Hatfield (Arizona State University, United States of America)
Abstract
Probability is crux that allows statistics to be a useful tool for many fields. Thus, the meanings that students develop for probability have the potential for lasting impacts. This report extends Thompson’s (2015) theory of meanings through the notion of conveyed meaning: the constrained implications that a receiver attributes to the sender’s statements. A student’s conveyed meanings give insight into his/her initial and/or dominant meanings for a particular idea. This report shares the results of two studies: one examining ~114 undergraduate students’ conveyed meanings for probability after they received instruction as well as their instructors’ conveyed meanings. The other on ~134 students conveyed meanings before and after instruction intended to combat the worrisome presence of circular conveyed meanings of probability.