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Probability Teaching and Learning

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Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education

Different Meanings of Probability

While the meaning of a typical mathematical object or operation (rectangles, division, etc.) is clear and not subject to interpretation, probability has received different meanings along history that still today are challenged. Although there are no contradictions in the probability calculus per se, different philosophical theories and the emerging conceptions of probability still persist, among which the most relevant for teaching are the classical, frequentist, subjectivist, and axiomatic or formal conceptions (Batanero et al. 2005) that we briefly analyze below.

Probability reveals a dual character since its emergence: a statistical side was concerned with finding the objective mathematical rules behind sequences of outcomes generated by random processes through data and experiments, while another epistemic side views probability as a personal degree of belief (Hacking 1975).

Progress in probability was linked to games of chance; it is not...

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References

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Correspondence to Carmen Batanero .

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Batanero, C. (2020). Probability Teaching and Learning. In: Lerman, S. (eds) Encyclopedia of Mathematics Education. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15789-0_128

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