The Misconceptions of High School Students Related to Representativeness in Probability

Probability, which has an important role in students' preferences in daily life, contains objects that are difficult to understand in terms of mathematics education. One of these challenges is the representativeness that reflects an exemplary situation that may arise as a result of an incident. Representativeness is a crucial concept that describes the situation by presenting a suitable model of the situation encountered in the teaching process and helping students to develop ideas about the situation. The object of this study is to determine the misconceptions of high school students (9, 10 and 11th grade) about representativeness in probability and to investigate the change of these misconceptions regarding school types and grade levels. In this study, the survey model, one of the quantitative research methods, was used. The sample of the study, which was determined by purposeful sampling method, consisted of 200 students studying in 9, 10 and 11th grades in two different types of high schools within the city of Van district. As a data collection tool, Representativeness in Statistical Reasoning: Identifying and Assessing Misconceptions survey whose reliability was calculated as 0.84, was applied by adapting to Turkish version. The findings of the study revealed that 41.5% of students had misconceptions about the representativeness in probability. When misconceptions were examined in terms of school types, it could be stated that the incidence of misconceptions in students in qualified schools was less. In addition, as the grade level increased, it is determined that the percentage of misconceptions related to representativeness determined to decrease. In the teaching of abstract subjects such as probability, the preference of examples used by students in their daily lives and the use of concrete materials is expected to reduce the difficulties related to representability