A study on mathematics students’ probabilistic intuition for decision-making in high school

Abstract

This paper reports on an exploratory study about probabilistic intuition in learning mathematics for decision-making. The analysis was carried out on a group of high school students in relation to their probabilistic intuition in problem-solving, after performing playful learning activities on a simulation platform specifically designed for this study. The analysis used a mixed qualitative-quantitative method. The results showed that the simulation activities facilitated the students’ probabilistic intuition and boosted their performance in solving problems, particularly avoiding decisions based on previous results (when unnecessary) and identifying situations, where binomial distribution can be used.