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Author: Dani Ben-Zvi
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Company: UNIVERSITAS GIENNENSIS

PME Discussion Group
for Stochastics Teaching and Learning
<ujaen.es/huesped/stochastics/>
Letter No 27 - May 2001
Table of Contents
1.	General Announcements
2.	PME25, Utrecht, 2001
	3.	Project 2001
4.	Next Newsletter
1.	General Announcements

I apologise for the long delay in sending this Newsletter. In March I decided that if I just had to submit my Dissertation by June, no matter what the cost to my other activities. I think I will make it by the time our plane leaves, but only just. Many of you will understand and sympathise.
By now you will have received your referees’ reports, and we hope that the refereeing process went well for you. The list of accepted papers is not on the PME Web site, so we cannot tell how many papers were accepted.
Because of other pressures this Newsletter only contains an update on the Discussion Group, which has been prepared by Kath.
Remember that general information on the Group and details of our members is available on the website. Also please not the change of address for Brian Greer who is now settled in to a new position in San Diego—a much drier environment than Belfast

2.	PME25, Utrecht, 2001—Discussion Group
These meetings will be held on Sun 15 July from c. 1445 to c. 1615 and on Tue 17 July (the last day) from c. 0945 to c. 1115, both 90 minutes. The timetable in Japan made it convenient for us to move on to a restaurant last year, which was rather fun. Timings this year are not as convenient, so we have decided not to arrange a similar event this year. 
The group’s discussions will be on the relationship between stochastical and mathematical thinking, learning, and teaching. We consider that there is more on this theme which can usefully be discussed.  It is our intention to approach this theme from multiple perspectives, including:
•	Philosophical, in terms of the perceived boundaries of the disciplines.
• 	Historical, in terms of the developments of the disciplines. 
• 	Educational, in terms of the positioning and implementation of the teaching and learning of stochastics within school and tertiary curricula, including such fundamental issues as teacher development, assessment, and technology.
• 	Psychological, in terms of the specific cognitive and sociocultural processes involved in the teaching and learning of stochastics.
• 	Research, in terms of cross-fertilisation of theoretical frameworks and methodologies.
The following members will present a short contribution which will be followed by discussion, questions and feedback from the other participants. 
•	Angustias Vallecillos Jiménez (Spain) who will speak about her work in statistical inference learning.
•	Rene Ritson (Northern Ireland) who will speak about her current  research study into possible relationships between young children’s understanding of probability and their understanding of fractions.
•	John Truran (Australia) whose subject is  “The Place of Probability in Stochastical Thinking Learning and Teaching”

The two Discussion Group Meetings will focus on work either being done, or planned by members of the group. As can be seen above the range of topics, and the age range of students addressed by the three presenters is very interesting. It is good to see that the learning of young children will be discussed because primary school children frequently produce fascinating insights, and evidence of creative and intuitive thinking when faced with stochastics situations. 

The Stochastics Discussion Group enables us to catch up with work being done by people whom we know—a great deal can happen in a year; research can take new directions, new projects are undertaken and developments made to existing research. All of these are reasons to come to the meetings and hear about important research that is happening.

Poster Presentations sometimes do not receive the interest that they deserve, so when you are looking for interesting Stochastics presentations to attend don’t overlook the list of posters. Posters are an effective means of communicating a lot of information in a short time and there may be some with a Stochastics focus that you will find interesting.

Members of the Group look forward to meeting you again and hearing about your research.

3.	Project 2061
Project 2061 and the National Science Teachers Association from the USA have co-published an "Atlas of Science Literacy". This is a collection of nearly 50 strand maps that show how students' understanding of the ideas and skills that lead to literacy in science, mathematics and technology might grow over time, from the start of formal schooling.
There are two chapters specifically on mathematics 
Chapter 2: THE NATURE OF MATHEMATICS
Cluster: MATHEMATICAL INQUIRY 
Mathematical Processes
Mathematical Models
Chapter 9: THE MATHEMATICAL WORLD
Cluster: MATHEMATICAL REPRESENTATION 
Graphic Representation
Symbolic Representation 
Cluster: PROPORTIONAL REASONING 
Ratios and Proportionality
Describing Change 
Cluster: STATISTICS 
Averages and Comparisons
Correlation
Statistical Reasoning
Of course, many mathematical ideas must come into other chapters on science and technology. Members interested in thinking about curriculum in terms of big ideas‚ might find these materials of use. They are accessible through the Project 2061 website at <http://www.project2061.org/tools/atlas/default.htm>
Andrew Ahlgren.
4.	Next Newsletter
The next Newsletter will be sent in September 2001  Material for publication by 15 Aug 2001, please, to John at <truranjk@camtech.net.au>.
Group Coordinators

Antonio Estepa, University of Jaén, Spain
<aestepa@ujaen.es>
Brian Greer, Queen’s University, Belfast, Northern Ireland
<ggreer@mail.sdsu.edu>
John Truran, University of Adelaide, Australia 
<truranjk@camtech.net.au>
Kath Truran, University of South Australia, Australia
<Kath.Truran@unisa.edu.au>