Combinatorial and Proportional Task: Looking for Intuitive Strategies in Primary Education

Abstract

The development of probabilistic thinking at school requires enhancing combinatorial and proportional reasoning. For this reason, 190 sixth-grade elementary school students (11–12-year-old), without previous instruction in the topic, solve a task consisting of five questions that address both types of reasoning. This study explores the problem-solving strategies used by schoolchildren. The results obtained indicate that, in general, the students do not show strategies in the answers to the combinatorial questions. In addition, it is observed that they have difficulties in understanding the proposed statements and arguing the issues that explicitly require a justification.

Keywords

• combinatorial reasoning
• proportional reasoning
• probabilistic thinking
• primary education