An Investigation of prospective elementary mathematics teachers' probabilistic misconceptions and reasons underlying these misconceptions

Download

index.pdf

Date

2013

Author

İlgün, Münevver

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

284
views

105
downloads

The purpose of this study was to determine performance of prospective elementary mathematics teachers on answering the items handling the probabilistic misconceptions. The other aim was to investigate the underlying reasons behind these misconceptions of prospective elementary mathematics teachers. To address these aims, qualitative approach was performed. The sample of this study was obtained through convenience sampling. Data were gathered during 2011-2012 spring semester by administering Probability Misconception Questionnaire to 12 senior prospective elementary mathematics teachers studying at faculty of education in Sakarya and through semi-structured interviews conducted with those prospective teachers. None of the participants provided correct answers to items addressing misconceptions regarding time axis fallacy and compound event. Furthermore, less than half of the participants provide the correct answer to items handling misconceptions regarding conditional probability, effect of sample size, conjunction fallacy and representativeness. Also, in this study, reasons behind those misconceptions were determined. Particularly, focusing on the first event was found to be a reason underlying time axis fallacy misconception. Also, another reason behind this misconception was misinterpretation of the problem, which also resulted in misconception regarding conditional probability. Furthermore, focusing on the ratio was found to be a reason underlying misconception regarding effect of sample size. Several participants solely focused on the narrative, which lead to misconception regarding conjunction fallacy. Moreover, seeking representativeness in samples was found to be a reason underlying misconception regarding representativeness. Lastly, in this study, it was found that ignoring order of outcomes resulted in misconception regarding compound event.

Subject Keywords

Mathematics teachers, Student teachers, Mathematics, Statistics, Probabilities

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12615447/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/22519

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

A Study on inservice teachers' attitudes toward and beliefs about mathematical problem solving Çokçalışkan, Hasan; Işıksal Bostan, Mine; Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education (2012) The main purpose of this study was to investigate elementary teachers’ and elementary mathematics teachers’ attitudes toward and beliefs about mathematical problem solving in terms of gender and grade level being taught. Moreover, the relationship between elementary teachers’ and elementary mathematics teachers’ attitudes and beliefs was evaluated in this study. The data were collected from 141 in-service elementary teachers who are teaching 4th and 5th graders and elementary mathematics teachers who are te...
Pre-service elementary mathematics teachers' knowledge about definitions of integers and their knowledge about elementary students' possible misconceptions and errors in describing integers Kubar, Ayşenur; Çakıroğlu, Erdinç; Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education (2012) The aim of the study is to examine the nature of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ subject matter knowledge about definition of integers and the nature of pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge about definitions of integers. For this purpose, pre-service mathematics teachers’ knowledge about definitions of integers, their interpretations of quoted definitions of integers, their knowledge about elementary students’ possible misconceptions and errors regarding de...
Pre-service middle school mathematics teachers’ understanding of quadrilaterals through the definitions and their relationships Öztoprakçı, Seçil; Çakıroğlu, Erdinç; Department of Elementary Education (2014) The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service mathematics teachers’ cognitive progress in constructing and evaluating quadrilateral definitions and the corresponding quadrilateral hierarchies under the support of the Geometer’s Sketchpad learning activities. The study employed qualitative case study design of which data was collected from 5 pre-service middle school mathematics teachers during the spring semester of 2010-2011. The main data came from one-to-one clinical interview sessions assisted wi...
An Analysis of prospective middle school mathematics teachers‘ argumentation structures in technology and paper-pencil environments Erkek, Özlem; Işıksal Bostan, Mine; Department of Elementary Education (2017) The purpose of the current study was to investigate the nature of argumentation structures of prospective middle school mathematics teachers while solving geometry tasks within the GeoGebra and Paper-Pencil groups. The study employed qualitative case study design and the data of which were collected from 16 prospective middle school mathematics teachers during the fall semester of the 2013-2014 academic year. Data were based on the video recordings of the implementations, the focus group interviews and docu...
A study on pre-service elementary mathematics teachers’ subject matter knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge regarding the multiplication and division of fractions Işıksal, Mine; Çakıroğlu, Erdinç; Department of Secondary Science and Mathematics Education (2006) The purpose of this study was to examine pre-service mathematics teachers’ subject matter knowledge, pedagogical content knowledge, and the relationships between the two on multiplication and division of fractions. For this purpose, pre-service teachers’ understanding of key facts, concepts, principles, and proofs, their knowledge on common (mis)conceptions and difficulties held by the elementary students, their strategies of teaching these concepts, and representations they use to reason their understandin...

Citation Formats

M. İlgün, “An Investigation of prospective elementary mathematics teachers’ probabilistic misconceptions and reasons underlying these misconceptions,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2013.