Investigating 6th, 7th and 8th grade students' probabilistic reasoning levels in terms of gender, grade level and mathematics achievement

The aim of this study is to determine probabilistic reasoning skill levels of 6th, 7th and 8th grade students and to examine these skills in terms of gender, grade level and mathematics achievement. This research is a descriptive and a relational survey model. The study group consisted of 286 students in 6th, 7th and 8th grade students attending state middle schools in a province in Marmara Region. In order to determine the probabilistic reasoning levels of the students, probabilistic reasoning scale created by the researcher was used. The probabilistic reasoning skills are studied in six key concepts: sample space, experimental probability of an event, theoretical probability of an event, probability comparisons, conditional probability and independence. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the probabilistic reasoning levels of the students. In addition, the chi-square analysis was used to determine whether these levels were correlated with gender, grade level, and mathematics achievement variables. For these statistical analyses, Microsoft Office Excel and SPSS program were used. As a result of the analysis, sample space, experimental probability of an event, conditional probability and independence maximum level of 1; it was found that students had the possibility of probabilistic reasoning as maximum level 3 in theoretical probability of an event and probability comparisons. The relationship between gender variable and only sample space was found. Class level variable was found to be correlated in all concepts. In all other concepts, the relationship with mathematics achievement was found except for in experimental probability of an event and independence.