Teaching Guidance Activities as a Strategy to Teach Probability in Primary School: Teacher’s Reflections

Abstract

The teaching of probability in basic primary school in Colombia is guided by the 1998 Basic Competence Standards (Estándares Básicos de Competencias), but different studies have shown that teaching stochastic thinking is of no greater importance in classroom. The development of probabilistic thinking is crucial for students to deal more effectively with decision making in mathematical or everyday life situations, to manage uncertainty appropriately, and to develop skills to look beyond the apparent, especially in the face of statistical information currently prevalent in the media. Based on the historical-cultural perspective and the critical-dialectical approach, this work analyzes how, through the theoretical and methodological framework called Teaching Guiding Activities (TGA), a group of primary school teachers from the Cristóbal Colón Educational Institution in Medellín managed to make a disciplinary approach to Probability through games and collectively build pedagogical reflections on their work. The information was collected through interviews and training sessions. It is concluded that it is fundamental for teachers to strengthen their disciplinary knowledge about Probability, that their conceptions about chance are linked to beliefs of a mystical or divine nature, which interferes with the objectivity of teaching, and that they recognize that games are a potential strategy for teaching stochastic concepts.