Literature Index

In this paper the role of the theoretical character of stochastics is considered for the teaching process and its organisation. The consequence of the theoretical character of stochastic knowledge - or the fact that the basic concepts cannot completely define probability theory, but are conversely only formed while developing probability theory - is that the teaching process must be organized differently. It is inappropriate to start from ready-made concepts, gradually adding further knowledge. Conversely, it is necessary to begin with meaningful situations which permit the forming and developing of concepts. Freudenthal characterizes this inversion of the teaching method by introducing mental objects.

Past empirical research on judgmental heuristics and biases has focused on questions of classification, with relatively little attention given to the development of general theoretical principles. It is the latter, however, that ultimately will lead to conclusions of greater generality and usefulness. A selected review of the literature on representativeness indicates some of the effects for which any complete theory must account and some of the limitations in many of the current experimental designs. The manner in which people use probabilistic information depends, in part, in (i) information specificity, (ii) information salience, (iii) individual differences, and (iv) problem wording. Theories are needed to elucidate these phenomena, and experimental designs are required that pay more attention to them.

This paper deals with some experiences with an undergraduate course in Mathematical Studies with Education which has in recent years been offered at Brunel University, U.K. We confine ourselves in particular to a statistics input to a final year specialist module titled "Mathematical Education".

In this paper we analyse the available resources, potential difficulties and principles in the training of primary school teachers in stochastics and stochastic education and then present a proposal for a syllabus to train primary school teachers in this field that takes into account the restrictions and aims of the European Higher Education Area.