Students' understanding of computer-based simulations of random behavior

This paper is motivated by a concern about the increasingly important role being given to computer-based simulations of random behavior in the teaching and learning of probability and statistics. Many curriculum developments in this area make the implicit assumption that students accept the computer algorithm for generating random outcomes as an appropriate representation of random behavior. This paper will outline some reasons for questioning this assumption, and will indicate a need to investigate how students' mental models of random behavior differ from their understanding of the computer representation of randomness.