Records Mobilized by Pedagogical Students in the Introductory Study of Probability

Abstract

This text aims to identify the difficulties and possible misunderstandings of probabilistic content among Pedagogy students, through different records obtained from the resolution of three activities involving probabilistic problems. Methodologically, an interpretative qualitative description was adopted, analyzing the responses and reflections of teachers in initial training expressed during the development of the proposed activities. This case study was carried out with a class composed of 14 academics studying the Degree in Pedagogy at a public university in the State of Pará, Brazil. The results indicate that the teaching of probability depends on the teacher's familiarity with the particularities of this content and recognition, by part of the student, of the subject covered, as well as the objects mobilized in the study. The analysis of the protocols, with the observation of the discussions carried out by the research subjects during the resolution of the probabilistic problems, allowed us to verify that the students had difficulties in converting the record from the fractional form to the decimal form or from the decimal form to the percentage. In this sense, it was found that students discuss the procedures studied when they can suggest other ways of organizing the situation presented. Therefore, the context in which the activity is structured needs to be able to receive interventions from the student and only after starting discussions on procedures and calculations to be developed.