Making sense of the total of two dice


Book: 
Journal for Research in Mathematics Education
Authors: 
Pratt, D.
Category: 
Volume: 
31(5)
Pages: 
602-625
Year: 
2000
Abstract: 

Many studies have shown that the strategies used in making judgments of chance are subject to systematic bias. Concerning chance and randomness, little is known about the relationship between the external structuring resources, made available for example in a pedagogic environment, and the construction of new internal resources. In this study I used a novel approach in which young children articulated their meanings for chance through their attempts to "mend" possibly broken computer-based stochastic gadgets. I describe the interplay between informal intuitions and computer-based resources as the children constructed new internal resources for making sense of the total of 2 spinners and 2 dice.

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