Randomness in Biology and Mathematics Teachers in Training: Analysis and Contrast of Meanings

Abstract

In this work, the meanings attached to randomness from 583 students from maths teacher career and 325 students from biology teacher career were analyzed, at the province of Mendoza, Argentina. In order to achieve the aim, a questionnaire where twelve of its items related to events in the game, physical natural and everyday contexts, was applied. In each of them the student must recognize whether the event is random or not, and then argue the decision. The analysis of the responses based on the category system proposed, allows to affirm that the biology student teachers recognize more random events than mathematics student teachers. In general, all subjects argue from uncertainty and causality, and recognition of randomness in the game context stands out from own situations from the natural physical context.