Costa Rican students’ proportional reasoning and comparing probabilities in spinners

Luis A. Hernández-Solís; Carmen Batanero; María M. Gea

doi:10.29333/ejmste/13869

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Luis A. Hernández-Solís ¹ , Carmen Batanero ² ^* , María M. Gea ²

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¹ Universidad Estatal a Distancia, Mercedes, San Jose, COSTA RICA² University of Granada, Granada, SPAIN^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This research aimed to relate Costa Rican students (11-16-year-olds) competence to compare probabilities in spinners and proportional reasoning in the comparison of ratios. We gave one of two questionnaires to a sample of 292 students (grade 6 to grade 10) with three probability comparison and three ratio comparison problems each. Globally both questionnaires cover six different proportional reasoning levels for each type of problem. Additionally, each questionnaire contains two comparison probabilities items intended to discover a specific bias. We analyze the percentages of correct responses to the items, strategies used to compare probabilities per school grade, and students’ probabilistic reasoning level. The results confirm more difficulty in comparing ratio than in comparing probability and suggest that the reasoning level achieved is lower than established in previous research. The main bias in the students’ responses was to consider the physical distribution of colored sectors in the spinners. Equiprobability and outcome approach were very scarce.

Keywords

comparing probabilities in spinners
proportional reasoning
reasoning levels
11-16-year-olds students

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This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2023, Volume 19, Issue 12, Article No: em2373

https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/13869

Publication date: 01 Dec 2023

Online publication date: 07 Nov 2023

Article Views: 464

Article Downloads: 317

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How to cite this article

APA

Hernández-Solís, L. A., Batanero, C., & Gea, M. M. (2023). Costa Rican students’ proportional reasoning and comparing probabilities in spinners. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 19(12), em2373. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/13869

Vancouver

Hernández-Solís LA, Batanero C, Gea MM. Costa Rican students’ proportional reasoning and comparing probabilities in spinners. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2023;19(12):em2373. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/13869

AMA

Hernández-Solís LA, Batanero C, Gea MM. Costa Rican students’ proportional reasoning and comparing probabilities in spinners. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2023;19(12), em2373. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/13869

Chicago

Hernández-Solís, Luis A., Carmen Batanero, and María M. Gea. "Costa Rican students’ proportional reasoning and comparing probabilities in spinners". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2023 19 no. 12 (2023): em2373. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/13869

Harvard

Hernández-Solís, L. A., Batanero, C., and Gea, M. M. (2023). Costa Rican students’ proportional reasoning and comparing probabilities in spinners. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 19(12), em2373. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/13869

MLA

Hernández-Solís, Luis A. et al. "Costa Rican students’ proportional reasoning and comparing probabilities in spinners". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 19, no. 12, 2023, em2373. https://doi.org/10.29333/ejmste/13869