[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"detail-sidebar-cat-0-en-105":3,"doc-seo-588578-105":59,"doc-detail-588578-en":130},{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":6},0,"success",[7,13,18,23,28,33,38,43,48,51,55],{"id":8,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":10,"show_sort_weight":11,"slug":12},1,"Document","Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":14,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":15,"show_sort_weight":16,"slug":17},2,"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":19,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":20,"show_sort_weight":21,"slug":22},4,"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":24,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":25,"show_sort_weight":26,"slug":27},5,"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":29,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":30,"show_sort_weight":31,"slug":32},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":34,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":35,"show_sort_weight":36,"slug":37},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":39,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":40,"show_sort_weight":41,"slug":42},8,"Research & Report",30,"research-report",{"id":44,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":45,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":47},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":46,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":49,"show_sort_weight":46,"slug":50},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":52,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":53,"show_sort_weight":52,"slug":54},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":56,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":9,"category_name":57,"show_sort_weight":24,"slug":58},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":60,"data":61},"ok",{"site_id":62,"language":63,"slug":64,"title":65,"keywords":66,"description":67,"schema_data":68,"social_meta":123,"head_meta":125,"extra_data":127,"updated_unix":129},105,"en","correcting-students-misconceptions-about-probability-in-an-introductory-college-statistics-course","Correcting Students’ Misconceptions about Probability in an Introductory College Statistics Course","","College students’ misconceptions about probability are common and widespread, hindering reliable judgments under uncertainty and mastery of inferential statistics fundamentals. This paper reports a study aimed at correcting three stochastic misconceptions in an introductory statistics course. Six instructors and their students participated; three received misconception-focused training before implementing targeted activities. Results show trained instructors improved outcomes for representativeness bias and outcome orientation, while untrained implementation did not outperform the control group. The study highlights direct misconception targeting and the importance of instructor training.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/correcting-students-misconceptions-about-probability-in-an-introductory-college-statistics-course/588578/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/correcting-students-misconceptions-about-probability-in-an-introductory-college-statistics-course/588578.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Rizky","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-10-31","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":34},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What problem does the study address in the introductory statistics course?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The study addresses widespread student misconceptions about probability that obstruct sound decision-making under uncertainty and impede mastery of inferential statistics concepts.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"Which three stochastic misconceptions do the authors target?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"The activities target representativeness bias, the equiprobability misconception, and the outcome orientation bias.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How do the results compare between trained and untrained instructors?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Trained instructors achieved significantly better outcomes than the control group in correcting representativeness bias and outcome orientation, while instructors implementing activities without training did not improve results for resolving the misconceptions.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},588578,1792167099,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":34,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":139,"language":140,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":141,"faqs":142,"seo_title":143,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":144,"read_time":145,"preview_page_count":4},962085564807,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_6f874abed73319feea01a86fa6f0fab8","Correcting Students’ Misconceptions about Probability in an Introductory College Statistics Course  \nLeonid Khazanov  \nBorough of Manhattan Community College  \nCity University of New York  \n\u003C[lkhazanov@bmcc.cuny.edu](lkhazanov@bmcc.cuny.edu)>  \nLucio Prado  \nBorough of Manhattan Community College  \nCity University of New York  \n\u003C[lprado@bmcc.cuny.edu](lprado@bmcc.cuny.edu)>  \nAbstract  \nCollege students’ misconceptions about probability are common and widespread. These misconceptions impede students' ability to make sound judgments in situations of uncertainty and master fundamental concepts of inferential statistics. In this paper the authors report the results of a study undertaken with the objective of correcting three common stochastic misconceptions within the framework of an introductory statistics course. Six instructors were recruited from an urban community college, along with their students. These instructors implemented a number of activities designed by one of the investigators and aimed at correcting the representativeness bias, the equiprobability misconception, and the outcome orientation bias. The purpose of the activities was to trigger cognitive conflict thereby leading students to bring out and correct their incomplete or erroneous concepts. Three of the instructors attended a workshop on misconceptions before implementing the activities; the other three implemented the activities without going through training. Instructors in the third (control) group did not implement any of the proposed activities and were not trained. An instrument designed by oneof the investigators was used to measure the extent of students’ misconceptions at the end of the semester in both treatment groups and the control group. The results show that trained instructors achieved significantly better outcomes than the control group in correcting two of themisconceptions: the representativeness bias and outcome orientation. By contrast, instructors who implemented the activities without being trained did not post better results than the control group in resolving any of the misconceptions. The results suggest that it is possible to improve students’ conceptual understanding of probability and correct their misconceptions by targeting the misconceptions directly in an introductory college statistics course. They also suggest that training on misconceptions is critical in ensuring instructors’ ability to successfully address students’ erroneous concepts about probability.  \nIntroduction  \nA substantial body of research demonstrates that students often hold non-standard concepts in mathematics and science (Garfield, 2001; Morton, 2008; Ozdemir & Clark, 2007; Vosniadu, 2004; Khazanov, 2008) . These non-standard concepts are referred to in the literature by different terms: naive concepts, preconceptions, misperceptions, and misconceptions. The most common, and broadly accepted, term used in the literature is misconception, which is defined as  \nVolume 5( 1)– June 2010 23  \n“a student conception that produces a systematic pattern of errors” (Smith, diSessa, & Roschelle, 1993, p. 10) . It is a well established fact that a large proportion of college students have misconceptions about probability (Antoine, 2000; Das, 2008; Giuliano, 2006; Hirsch & O’Donnell, 2001; Konold, 1989; delMas & Bart, 1989) . These non-standard concepts could have developed as a result of informal encounters students have with uncertain events at home, at the workplace, or while playing games of chance. Some of them might have developed misconceptions at school while learning probability, statistics or other subjects. There are scores of misconceptions about probability described in the literature. The most common include theequiprobability bias, conjunction fallacy, outcome orientation, representativeness, availability bias, and various misconceptions of conditional probability (Shaughnessy,1992; Jones, Langrall,& Mooney, 2007) .  \nThere is also strong research eviden","cbCairnhZrHLCCRA","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCairnhZrHLCCRA","pdf",217983,13,"English","# Abstract\n# Introduction\n## Need for study","[{\"question\":\"What problem does the study address in the introductory statistics course?\",\"answer\":\"The study addresses widespread student misconceptions about probability that obstruct sound decision-making under uncertainty and impede mastery of inferential statistics concepts.\"},{\"question\":\"Which three stochastic misconceptions do the authors target?\",\"answer\":\"The activities target representativeness bias, the equiprobability misconception, and the outcome orientation bias.\"},{\"question\":\"How do the results compare between trained and untrained instructors?\",\"answer\":\"Trained instructors achieved significantly better outcomes than the control group in correcting representativeness bias and outcome orientation, while instructors implementing activities without training did not improve results for resolving the misconceptions.\"}]","Correcting Students’ Misconceptions about Probability in an Introductory College Statistics Course | PDF",1792065529,33]