Teaching probability: using levels of dialogue and proportional reasoning

Understanding probability and conditional probability are important aspects of a statistical literacy program. Unfortunately many students find these difficult concepts to grasp. Enhancing students’ understandings of probability is explored from two perspectives. The first is based on the notion that students are better able to construct their understanding of probability when teachers use a hierarchy of dialogue questions from descriptive to the abstract, depending on the students’ understanding and responses. The second approach to enhance students’ understanding of probability is to extend their understanding of proportional reasoning and their ability to conceptualise how the same numerical value can be expressed in different forms.