In this paper first we present results from an initial assessment to a sample of 132 trainee teachers at the Faculty of Education, University of Granada that show they frequently hold three probabilistic misconceptions. We secondly analyse two experiments where simulation served to confront trainee primary school teachers with their probability misconceptions. At the same time these experiments served to present these teachers with some activities based on a constructivist and social approach to teaching. The activities seemed to influence a change of conceptions for a sizeable part of students with a previous misconception; however, a large proportion of the students were still unable to give a correct response after simulation. We conclude that a better prior training for teachers as well as permanent support for these teachers from University departments and research groups is an urgent necessity.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education