This article describes several ways to connect probability to other topics within mathematics, over a range of year levels, and across the curriculum. It includes a description of common issues and misconceptions, and practical learning activities to address them.

In the author's experience with this activity, students struggle with the idea of representativeness in probability. Therefore, this student misconception is part of the classroom discussion about the activities in this lesson. Representativeness is related to the (incorrect) idea that outcomes that seem more random are more likely to happen. This…

Effectively teaching the concepts of osmosis to college-level students is a major obstacle in biological education. Therefore, a novel computer model is presented that allows students to observe the random nature of particle motion simultaneously with the seemingly directed net flow of water across a semipermeable membrane during osmotic…

Multiple-choice testing is an educational reality. Rather than complain about the negative impact these tests may have on teaching and learning, why not use them to better understand your students' true mathematical knowledge and comprehension? Maryann Wickett and Eunice Hendrix-Martin show teachers how to move beyond the student's answer--right…

In this article, the author responds to the paper "Exploring pre-service teachers' understanding of statistical variation: Implications for teaching and research" by Sashi Sharma (see EJ779107). In that paper, Sharma described a study "designed to investigate pre-service teachers' acknowledgment of variation in sampling and…

Statistics is the art and science of gathering, analyzing, and making conclusions from data. However, many people do not fully understand how to interpret statistical results and conclusions. Placing students in a collaborative environment involving project-based learning may enable them to overcome misconceptions of probability and enhance the…

Investigated are three misconceptions of probability and the differential effect of two activity-based instructional units. Response categories (law of averages, law of small numbers, and availability) are identified. Treatment differences (evaluation or no evaluation) appear to influence subjects' interpretations of the information. (YP)

Presents research findings related to students' intuitive ideas about the concepts of chance to inform teachers how students form their concepts of probability and statistics. Discusses adolescents' conceptions of uncertainty, judgmental heuristics in making estimates of event likelihood, the conjunction fallacy, the outcome approach, attempts to…

Results of the most recent administration of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) suggest that the majority of secondary students believe in the independence of random events. In the study reported here, a high percentage of high school and college students answered similar problems correctly. However, about half of the students…

The concept of probability is not an easy concept for high school and college students to understand. This paper identifies and analyzes the students' alternative frameworks from the viewpoint of constructivism. There are various interpretations of probability through mathematical history: classical, frequentist, and subjectivist interpretation.…

To investigate the origins and nature of intuitive obstacles affecting the learning of elementary probability theory, 618 Italian elementary and middle school students were interviewed about their methods of solution for several problems dealing with probability. The discussion focuses on four varieties of obstacles to learning prevalent within…