Recent research in probability education

Presented at: 12 March 2024; 18:00 UTC

Webinar duration: 90 minutes

Presenter(s): Carmen Batanero and Rocío Álvarez-Arroyo

Carmen and Rocío will present about their ZDM - Mathematics Education paper Teaching and learning of probability➶.

Webinar video➶

Presentation slides➶

Paper abstract

In this paper, we develop a personal synthesis of the most outstanding research on the teaching and learning of probability in the past years. We conducted a systematic search to examine publications on this topic in mathematics education, statistics education, education, and psychology journals. This exploration was complemented by additional studies published in conference proceedings or books. We classified these papers to highlight the main recent research tendencies in the field, according to the theme studied and considering the research objectives. Epistemological analyses suggest that informal inference based on simulation diminishes the topic abstraction but reduces probability to its frequentist view. Topics receiving particular attention include children’s probabilistic knowledge, the effect of visualizations on solving conditional probability problems, teachers’ education and probability modelling. In the final section, we recommend relevant points in which more investigation is needed to complete our knowledge about teaching and learning. In particular, we miss research on teachers’ mathematical knowledge of many probability concepts and on their didactic knowledge.

Bios

Carmen Batanero

Until 2019, Carmen Batanero was a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics Education at the University of Granada, Spain. She is now retired and collaborates in the research group FQM126 Theory of Mathematics Education and Statistics Education➶.

She edited the Statistics Education Research Journal (2001-2002) and is now an associate editor. She was President of IASE from 2001 to 2003, member of the Executive Committee (1997-2007) and member of the ICMI Executive Committee (2003-2006). She was the Chair of the Scientific Committee for ICOTS-6 (2006), the IASE Round Table Conference (2000), and the Joint ICMI/IASE Study from 2008 to 2011. She is an honorary member of the IASE.

Rocío Álvarez-Arroyo

Teaching Assistant in the Department of Mathematics Didactics of the University of Granada (UGR), Spain. She graduated as a Chemical Engineer and an Industrial Technical Engineer. Later, she carried out a PhD at the University of Granada and a master’s in mathematics education in the same university. She is currently developing a second PhD in Education and works as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Granada. Her research is focused on Probability and Statistics Education. She is a member of the research group FQM126 Theory of Mathematics Education and Statistics Education➶.