Contributed paper list


   (Tuesday 15th, 10:55-12:25)   In session C6B

Overview of prospective mathematics teachers’ probabilistic thinking

Authors

Amable Moreno, José María Cardeñoso

Presenter

Amable Moreno (Argentina)

Abstract

This paper presents an overview of the models of probabilistic thinking constructed by 583 prospective mathematics teachers in the province of Mendoza, Argentina. The goal was to gain insight into the personal meanings that these future teachers attribute to random phenomena and to the estimation of their probability. This knowledge should enable one to design the probabilistic education of prospective teachers from more appropriate conceptual and didactic standpoints, and thus contribute to the statistical literacy of secondary school pupils (Cardeñoso et al. 2008; Meletiou-Mavrotheris et al., 2008; Carmichael, Callingham et al., 2009; Vega, et al., 2010, 2011). For this reason all the prospective mathematics teachers responded to a twenty-four item questionnaire which was based on the category system proposed by Cardeñoso (2001). The responses were analysed using multivariate statistical techniques. These revealed four levels or trends in probabilistic thinking which fitted the descriptive labels of deterministic, personalistic, uncertainty, and contingent.