Cognitive Levels and Misconceptions of Grade 11 Lebanese Students in Probability

Abstract

The concept of probability is fundamental to students especially at the secondary school level. Learning probability is always linked to logic and reasoning. This paper aims at unveiling the cognitive levels in probability and exploring the probability misconceptions of a sample of 41 grade 11 Lebanese students at the end of their academic year during which they encountered probability as a subject in school for the first time. The approach to data collection is quantitative and qualitative. The 25 item questionnaire in Paul and Hlanganipai (2014) was used to determine the students’ cognitive levels in probability based on SOLO taxonomy and using the rubrics used in Watson and Collis (1994). The questionnaire is divided into 5 categories: probability terms and definitions, theoretical probability, Venn diagrams, union and intersection and dependent and independent events. After that 10 students were randomly selected from the sample and interviewed to explore two probability misconceptions: representativeness and equiprobability bias. Results showed that grade 11 students attained level 3 in two of the categories and were able to reach level 2 in two other categories while they remained at level 1 in the fifth categories. As for the students’ misconceptions, representativeness misconception was rarely found while equiprobability bias was more prevalent.