Exploring Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Probability and Its Teaching

Since probability is a new topic at the primary school level in many countries, many primary school teachers may consider themselves not well prepared, or may not value the formative role of probability as a topic for their students to learn. Consequently, the assessment of teachers’ attitudes using valid and reliable instruments is a preliminary step in organizing formative actions for these teachers. In this paper, we describe the development of a scale aimed at measuring primary school teachers’ attitudes towards probability and the teaching of probability. The components considered in building the instrument, the process of selecting the items, as well as the results of a pilot trial of the instrument are presented. The validity and reliability of the instrument are also discussed, and the preliminary results of a second sample of 232 prospective teachers in Spain is analysed. Our results suggest that future teachers’ attitudes towards probability and its teaching are generally positive in all of the components considered.