Browsing by Author "Alsina, Angel"

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    Analysing Probability Teaching Practices in Primary Education: What Tasks Do Teachers Implement?
    (MDPI, 2021) Vásquez Ortiz, Claudia; Alsina, Angel
    This study analyses probability tasks proposed by primary education teachers to promote probabilistic literacy. To this end, eight class sessions at various levels of the Chilean educational system were recorded on video and analysed through the "probability tasks " dimension from the "Observation Instrument for Probability Classes " (IOC-PROB), which includes five components: use of resources, probabilistic contexts, cognitive challenge, procedures and strategies, and probability meanings. The results show that probability tasks focus mainly on technical knowledge, causing the probability class to become an arithmetic class in which only formulas are applied, mechanically and with no meaning. As a result, we see no use of technological resources, a low use of physical materials, and an absolute predominance of solving decontextualised exercises. We conclude that it is necessary to enhance the probability teaching practices based on lesson plans that consider a wide variety of resources and contexts to gradually advance towards a representation of probabilistic knowledge that relies on conventional procedures and notations.
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    Education for Sustainable Development in Primary Education Textbooks-An Educational Approach from Statistical and Probabilistic Literacy
    (MDPI, 2021) Vásquez Ortiz, Claudia; Garcia Alonso, Israel; Seckel, Maria Jose; Alsina, Angel
    Based on the Stochastic Education Approach to Sustainability Education, the statistical and probability tasks for sustainability education in a collection of primary school mathematics textbooks in Chile (6-14 years old) were analyzed. A content analysis was carried out based on four categories: contexts for sustainability, levels of articulation, cognitive demand, and authenticity. The results show that: (1) there is a low presence of contexts for sustainability; (2) the tasks are not articulated to develop any of the Sustainable Development Goals; (3) there is a clear predominance of memorization tasks; (4) the teaching of statistics and probability in textbooks is not aligned with Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). These results are the roadmap for a new educational approach that allows the design of statistical and probability tasks to educate for sustainability in Primary Education. This new approach should promote that, through the progressive development of statistical and probabilistic literacy, students understand the different problems (social, economic and environmental) that we are faced with, as well as the measures that must be adopted to transform and act for a more sustainable world.
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    Evaluation of teaching and mathematical knowledge in primary teachers for the teaching of probability
    (ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV, 2014) Vásquez Ortiz, Claudia; Alsina, Angel
    To provide information to transform teaching practice through improved primary school mathematics teacher training (6-12 years), a tool to assess the mathematical knowledge for teaching didactic probability has been designed. For its preparation the model of category analysis of the mathematical-didactic knowledge of the teacher was considered. This model includes four categories of fundamental knowledge: a) content knowledge, b) knowledge of the contents in relation to students, c) content knowledge in relation to education, and d) knowledge of curriculum and intra-and interdisciplinary connections. These categories can identify, classify, analyse and evaluate both the knowledge teachers need for teaching and the knowledge teachers actually implement when teaching a particular content, in this case the one related to the teaching of probability in elementary education. These skills have been being widely investigated in recent years in future teachers. Nevertheless, in Chile, there is very little data concerning current teachers. The analysis of the data will allow, first, to describe the strengths and weaknesses of the various categories of teacher knowledge involved in the teaching of probability, and secondly, relevant information to guide the initial and constant training of teachers in relation to the knowledge needed for the teaching of probability. (C) 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.