CAN KINDERGARTEN CHILDREN BE SUCCESSFULLY
INVOLVED IN PROBABILISTIC TASKS?
SONIA KAFOUSSI
University of Aegean, Greece
kafoussi@rhodes.aegean.gr
SUMMARY
This paper describes a classroom teaching experiment, concerning the concept of probability, with children aged 5 in a kindergarten school. The teaching experiment was based on constructivist and interactionist theories about the learning of school mathematics and lasted one month. The collection of the information was based on the tape-recorded interviews with the children (each child was interviewed prior to the research program, at the end of the program and one month later) and the videotaped teaching sessions. During the program, we identified three critical steps in the development of the children’s probabilistic thinking: a) the interpretation of the “different” outcomes in a two stage experiment, b) the acceptance of the realization of the experiment for resolving their conflicting viewpoints, and c) estimating the outcomes in a problem. At the end of the program the majority of the children managed to overcome their subjective interpretations and seemed to develop a primitive quantitative reasoning in probabilistic tasks.
Keywords: Statistics education research;
Probabilistic thinking; Kindergarten; Instructional activities
__________________________
Statistics Education Research Journal,
3(1), 29-39, http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/serj
Ó International Association for Statistical Education (IASE/ISI), May, 2004
REFERENCES
Acredolo, C., O’Connor, J., Banks, L., & Horibin, K. (1989). Children’s ability to make probability estimates: Skills revealed through application of Anderson’s functional measurement methodology, Child development, 60, 933-945.
Cobb, P., & Bauersfeld, H. (1995). The emergence of mathematical meaning: interaction in classroom cultures. Hillsdale, NJ: LEA.
Cobb, P., Wood, T., Yackel, E., & McNeal, B. (1992). Characteristics of classroom mathematics traditions: An interactional analysis, American Educational Research Journal, 29(3), 573-604.
English, L. D. (1993). Children’s strategies for solving two and three stage combinatorial problems. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 24(3), 255-273.
Erickson, F. (1986). Qualitative methods in research on teaching. In M.C. Wittrock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching, 3rd ed. (pp. 119-161). New York: Macmillan.
Fischbein, E., & Gazit, A. (1984). Does the teaching of probability improve probabilistic situations? Educational Studies in Mathematics, 15, 1-24.
Fischbein, E., & Schnarch, D. (1997). The evolution with age of probabilistic intuitively based misconceptions. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 28(1), 97-105.
Greer, B. (2001). Understanding probabilistic thinking: the legacy of Efraim Fischbein, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 45, 15-33.
Jones, G. A., Langrall, C. W., Thornton, C. A., & Mogill, A. T. (1997). A framework for assessing and nurturing young children’s thinking in probability, Educational Studies in Mathematics, 32, 101-125.
Jones, G. A., Langrall, C. W., Thornton, C. A., & Mogill, A.T. (1999). Students’ probabilistic thinking in instruction. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 30(5), 487-519.
Kapadia, R., & Borovcnik, M. (1991). Chance Encounters: Probability in Education.
Dordrecht, The Netherlands:
Kluwer.
National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1989). Curriculum and evaluation standards for school mathematics. Reston, VA.
Piaget, J., & Inhelder, B. (1975). The Origin of the Idea of Chance in Children. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Shaughnessy, J. M. (1992). Research in probability and statistics: Reflections and directions. In D. A. Grouws (Ed.), Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning (pp. 465-494). New York: Macmillan.
Schroeder, T. L. (1988). Elementary school children’s use of strategy in playing microcomputer probability games. In R. Davinson & J. Swift (Eds.), Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Teaching Statistics, (pp. 51-56). Canada: University of Victoria.
SONIA KAFOUSSI
Department of Sciences in Pre-school Education
and Educational Design
University of Aegean
1, Demokratias Street
85100, Rhodes
Greece