Elementary School Students’ Intuitive Conceptions of Random Distribution

Sibel Kazak; Jere Confrey

doi:10.29333/iejme/211

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Sibel Kazak, Jere Confrey

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Abstract

This research focuses on fourth-grade (9-year-old) students’ informal and intuitive conceptions of probability and distribution revealed as they worked through a sequence of tasks. These tasks were designed to study students’ spontaneous reasoning about distributions in different settings and their understanding of probability of various binomial random events that they explored with a set of physical chance mechanisms. The data were gathered from a pilot study with four students. We analyzed the interplay of reasoning about distribution and understanding of probability. The findings suggest that students’ qualitative descriptions of distributions could be developed into the quantification of probabilities through reasoning about data in chance situations.

Keywords

Statistics Education Research
Probability
Random Distribution
Elementary School
Student Intuitive Conceptions

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

INT ELECT J MATH ED, Volume 2, Issue 3, October 2007, 227-244

https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/211

Publication date: 12 Dec 2007

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How to cite this article

APA

Kazak, S., & Confrey, J. (2007). Elementary School Students’ Intuitive Conceptions of Random Distribution. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 2(3), 227-244. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/211

Vancouver

Kazak S, Confrey J. Elementary School Students’ Intuitive Conceptions of Random Distribution. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2007;2(3):227-44. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/211

AMA

Kazak S, Confrey J. Elementary School Students’ Intuitive Conceptions of Random Distribution. INT ELECT J MATH ED. 2007;2(3), 227-244. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/211

Chicago

Kazak, Sibel, and Jere Confrey. "Elementary School Students’ Intuitive Conceptions of Random Distribution". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education 2007 2 no. 3 (2007): 227-244. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/211

Harvard

Kazak, S., and Confrey, J. (2007). Elementary School Students’ Intuitive Conceptions of Random Distribution. International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, 2(3), pp. 227-244. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/211

MLA

Kazak, Sibel et al. "Elementary School Students’ Intuitive Conceptions of Random Distribution". International Electronic Journal of Mathematics Education, vol. 2, no. 3, 2007, pp. 227-244. https://doi.org/10.29333/iejme/211