eprintid: 10006661
rev_number: 17
eprint_status: archive
userid: 587
dir: disk0/00/00/66/61
datestamp: 2011-03-22 10:27:33
lastmod: 2017-12-07 21:16:33
status_changed: 2011-04-01 15:37:53
type: thesis
metadata_visibility: show
item_issues_count: 0
creators_name: Paparistodemou, Efthymia
title: Children's expressions of randomness : constructing probabilistic ideas in an open computer game
ispublished: unpub
divisions: B14
note: Thesis: (PhD) University of London Institute of Education, 2004.
abstract: The research literature on children's understanding of randomness has developed
considerably in recent decades, notably due to the key contributions of researchers such as
Piaget and Inhelder (1975) and Tversky and Kahneman (1983). Yet the research has paid
rather scant attention to the tools that people have available for expressing ideas about
randomness, fairness and more generally, probability. In contrast, work within the
paradigm of 'constructionism' makes the explicit claim that by using tools that are
specially designed for expressing concepts of randomness and chance, people may be
better able to express ideas that can seldom be predicted by cognitive analysis based on,
say, misconceptions or thinking stages that fail to take sufficient account of too] mediation.
This study investigated the nature of young children's expressions of random events.
Specifically the aims of the study were:
E iteratively to design and evaluate a tool-based game to afford children between the
ages of 5 1/2and 8 opportunities to express and develop probabilistic ideas; and
m to describe and analyse how the tool-based game mediated the children's
expressions of chance events.
An open computer game was designed for children to express understandings of
randomnessa s formal conjectures, so that they were able to examine the consequenceso f
their understandings. The game was designed simultaneously to afford children the
opportunity to explore and express their intuitions and ideas, and to give the researcher the
opportunity to study how probabilistic ideas evolved during the activity.
The study was organised in two main phases. The first, iterative design phase, compared
two cycles of design and experiments with children as they played with and reconstructed
the game. The second phase consisted of the learning investigation phase, which describes
in detail the expressed ideas of children in using the game. This thesis shows how a visible
and 'continuous' medium, i. e. one in which the sample space is represented by a spatial
and dynamic metaphor, can enhance young children's expressions of randomness. The
findings identify children's initial meanings for expressing stochastic phenomena and
describe how the computer tool-based game helped to shift children's attempts to
understand randomness from looking for ways to control random behaviour, towards
looking for ways to control events. This was significant, since the study analyses howchildren constructed their own ideas for fairness and in particular, how they constructed
both symmetrical and asymmetrical spatial arrangements for it. In general, it is conjectured
that the structure of the game, and in particular, the linkage between its components,
assisted children in developing associated mental structures that developed their
understandings of chance. Finally, evidence is presented that the children constructed a set
of 'situated abstractions' for ideas such as 'distribution' and the 'law of large numbers'.
date: 2004
date_type: completed
oa_status: green
thesis_class: doctoral_open
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
full_text_status: restricted
pages: 250
institution: Institute of Education, University of London
thesis_type: Doctoral
citation:        Paparistodemou, Efthymia;      (2004)    Children's expressions of randomness : constructing probabilistic ideas in an open computer game.                   Doctoral thesis , Institute of Education, University of London.     Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10006661/1/418253.pdf
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10006661/7/418253_Redacted.pdf