Ashley Marshall- S00154321

EDMA310 | Probability |

EDMA310/360 Mathematics unit planner

S00154321

Tutorial: Wednesday 11am

Ashley Marshall

Unit Overview


Unit title: Experimenting with probability

Content maths area: Probability

Grade/year level: Five
Focus area 2.5

Learning Focus (ideas extrapolated from AusVELS):
The content stand explored throughout this unit of work is statistics and probabilities.
Students in grade five, discover ways of working with experiments that contain the sub
strand chance, and explore the proficiency strands understanding and reasoning to
develop the necessary skills needed to work with probability experiments.

Word count: 48


Rationale:
Probability is a key concept for students to develop as they progress through the early
stages of their mathematical learning. It is a concept that is not limited to the classroom,
and develops a persons ability to infer, prove, and draw conclusions about the likelihood of
events occurring in their everyday lives. Through analysing the data collected against their
initial beliefs, and probing themselves, students are more likely to evaluate their previous
understandings, and create new knowledge. (Sharma, 2015, p.80)

Word Count: 77

Assumed prior knowledge of students:
As students reach grade 5 they should have developed some understanding about the
relationship between the theoretical, and experimental probability, which enables them to
see the link between the experimental outcome (the actual results), and the initially listed
sample space to assist in drawing conclusions. (Barnes, 1998, p.1) Students in grade five
should have an understanding that outcomes are independent of each other. Although
misconceptions such as gamblers fallacy can be common amongst students who tend to
believe, that each outcome is dependent on the previous outcome, rather than
acknowledging outcomes as independent of each other. (Maher et al. 2014, p.439) Grbz
et al. (2014) supports Maher et al. (2014) by stating that Since getting heads and tails
are independent events, the probability of getting either one is the same... (p.27)
Word Count: 114
Focus area 2.1

Grouping strategies to support learning:
Throughout this unit students are grouped in ways that allow them to work both
independently and collaboratively as a whole group, in small groups, and in pairs, enabling
students to initially make sense of the problem themselves, before facilitating and sharing
there ideas with peers, in the hope of creating new understandings and meaning of the
task. Eric (2014) highlights that students working collaboratively were presented
1

Ashley Marshall- S00154321 EDMA310 | Probability |

Tutorial: Wednesday 11am
opportunities to share ideas, consider the appropriateness of one anothers solutions,
discuss different representations of the same problem (p. 127)

Word Count: 82

Focus area 2.4
Overview of assessment:
The assessment strategies used throughout this unit of work are a mixture of both
formative and summative, and are used in conjunction with a range of learning tasks to
guide future lessons and student development in probability (Self-assessments, rubrics,
informal observations, note taking, and checklists). The assessment strategies enable not
only the classroom teacher, but also their students to be active participants in their own
development as they are given the opportunity to self assess and highlight what they do
and do not understand.

Word Count: 84

Ashley Marshall- S00154321

EDMA310 | Probability |

Tutorial: Wednesday 11am

References:

Australian Curriculum and Assessment Reporting Authority. (2015). Mathematics scope and sequence
foundation to level 6. Retrieved from
http://ausvels.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Mathematics/Curriculum/F-10
Barnes, M. (1998). Dealing with misconceptions about probability. Australian Mathematics Teacher,
54(1), 14-20
Eric, C.C.M. (2014). Exploring group dynamics of primary 6 students engaged in mathematical
modelling activities. In . Anderson, M. Cavanagh & A. Prescott (Eds.). Curriculum in focus:
Research guided practice (Proceedings of the 37th annual conference of the Mathematics
Education Research Group of Australasia). Sydney: MERGA.
De Klerk, J. (2007). Illustrated maths dictionary. Australia: Pearson Education Australia (TAFE).

Grbz, R., & Erdem, E., & Firat, S. (2014). The Effect of Activity-Based Teaching on Remedying the
Probability-Related Misconceptions: A Cross-Age Comparison. Creative Education, 5(1), 18-30

Maher, N., & Muir, T. (2014). I dont really understand probability at all: Final year pre-service
teachers understanding of probability. In . J. Anderson, M. Cavanagh & A. Prescott (Eds.).
Curriculum in focus: Research guided practice (Proceedings of the 37th annual conference of
the Mathematics Education Research Group of Australasia). Sydney: MERGA.

Sharma, S. (2015). Teaching probability: a socio-constructivist perspective. Teaching statistics, 37(3),
78-84.