Prospective teachers’ common and specialized knowledge in a probability task

Abstract

The aim of this research was to assess the common and specialized knowledge of elementary probability in a sample of 183 prospective primary school teachers in Spain, using an open-ended task. Common knowledge of probability was assessed in the first part of the task, where teachers had to compute simple, compound and conditional probability from data presented in a two-way table. The specialized knowledge of probability was assessed in the second part of the task, were teachers were asked to identify and classify the mathematical content in the problem proposed. Results suggest participants’ poor common and specialized knowledge of elementary probability in this task and point to the need of reinforcing the preparation of prospective teachers to teach probability.Research supported by the project EDU2010-14947 (MCINN-FEDER), grant FPI BES-2008-003573 (MEC-FEDER) and group FQM126 (Junta de Andalucia)