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Chinese students' understanding of probability
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Type
Thesis
Author
Li, Jun
Supervisor
Pereira-Mendoza, Lionel
Abstract
In our modem society, people are faced more and more often with making decisions in an environment that involves uncertainty. Within this environment the teaching of probability is an important topic. The literature suggests that probability is a complex concept with many dimensions. Probability car1 be interpreted descriptively using words such as never, impossible, unlikely, probably, certain, and so on, but how they are used in probability may be different from the real-life use of these words. Probability can also be interpreted quantitatively using three approaches: theoretical, empirical and subjective. These approaches are complementary, since different approaches could be appropriate in different situations. However, it should be noted that in some situations more than one of the three approaches could be applied in the same situation.
Researchers who have investigated probability have identified many misconceptions, such as representativeness, availability, outcome approach, equiprobability, and so on. The results of the research show that the use of some misconceptions decreases with age, while others are very stable and even grow strlonger with age. The research has usually been undertaken in Western coun~tries.
This study investigated the following three questions: What are the main misconc:eptions of probability Chinese students have? What is the developmental structure of students' understanding of probability? Can an activity-basecl short-term teaching programme improve ordinary grade 8 students' understanding of probability?
The research was divided into two parts. The first two questions were answered in the first part, referred to as the main study. The sample was 567 Chinese students from three grades (6, 8 and 12) and two school streams (ordinary and advanced). Eighty-three items, most in multiple-choice plus explanation form, in four categories (identification of impossible, possible and certain events; interpretation of chance values; chance comparison in one stage experiments and chance comparison in two-stage experiments) were organised into nine distinct questionnaires. Sixty-four out of the 567 students were interviewed the day after the questionnaires had been administered.
The second part is referred to as the teaching intervention. Six activitybased lessons which focused on empirical probability were given to two grade 8 classes (each with about 25 students) in an ordinary school. The approaches were parallel except that one class had the opportunity to see computer simulations of a long series of experiments, while the other class was given the data in written form. During most of the teaching time the two classes did the same activities. All the students were tested and interviewed both prior to and after the teaching intervention.
Researchers who have investigated probability have identified many misconceptions, such as representativeness, availability, outcome approach, equiprobability, and so on. The results of the research show that the use of some misconceptions decreases with age, while others are very stable and even grow strlonger with age. The research has usually been undertaken in Western coun~tries.
This study investigated the following three questions: What are the main misconc:eptions of probability Chinese students have? What is the developmental structure of students' understanding of probability? Can an activity-basecl short-term teaching programme improve ordinary grade 8 students' understanding of probability?
The research was divided into two parts. The first two questions were answered in the first part, referred to as the main study. The sample was 567 Chinese students from three grades (6, 8 and 12) and two school streams (ordinary and advanced). Eighty-three items, most in multiple-choice plus explanation form, in four categories (identification of impossible, possible and certain events; interpretation of chance values; chance comparison in one stage experiments and chance comparison in two-stage experiments) were organised into nine distinct questionnaires. Sixty-four out of the 567 students were interviewed the day after the questionnaires had been administered.
The second part is referred to as the teaching intervention. Six activitybased lessons which focused on empirical probability were given to two grade 8 classes (each with about 25 students) in an ordinary school. The approaches were parallel except that one class had the opportunity to see computer simulations of a long series of experiments, while the other class was given the data in written form. During most of the teaching time the two classes did the same activities. All the students were tested and interviewed both prior to and after the teaching intervention.
Date Issued
2000
Call Number
QA273.2 Li
Date Submitted
2000