Children's understanding of randomness: Report of a survey of 1600 children aged 7-11 years

This paper reports on some aspects of research carried out in 1986 using 1600 Primary school children in mixed ability classes in state schools in a small Leicestershire town. The subjects, aged between 7:9 and 11:9 were give two untimed class tests which together took from 40 to 55 minutes to administer. All questions were read out to the subjects. The first test was concerned with concepts of randomness, the second with comparison of odds. Results indicate that young children do have a sound conceptual awareness of randomness.