Overcoming challenges in learning probability vocabulary

Summary Students can struggle to understand and use terms that describe probabilities. Such struggles lead to difficulties comprehending classroom conversations. In this article, we describe some specific misunderstandings a group of students (ages 11–12) held in regard to vocabulary such as certain...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Teaching statistics 2016-09, Vol.38 (3), p.102-107
Main Authors: Groth, Randall E., Butler, Jaime, Nelson, Delmar
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Advance Organizers
Educational Games
Elementary School Students
Language
Misconceptions
Probability
Statistical Analysis
Statistics
Teaching
Teaching statistics
Visualization
Vocabulary
Vocabulary Development
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Summary Students can struggle to understand and use terms that describe probabilities. Such struggles lead to difficulties comprehending classroom conversations. In this article, we describe some specific misunderstandings a group of students (ages 11–12) held in regard to vocabulary such as certain, likely and unlikely. We discuss our efforts to help the students use such terms appropriately. In particular, we show how engaging students in a game requiring the use of the terms helped them begin to develop their vocabulary more fully. We also explain how a probability ladder visual organizer helped students begin to organize their thinking about the meanings of terms relative to one another.
ISSN:0141-982X
1467-9639
DOI:10.1111/test.12109