Programming mathematics: a new approach in introducing probability to less able pupils

This article presents an instructional model for teaching formal mathematical concepts and operations to the less able high‐school students. Computer programming is used to express, in a formal way, experiments in probability and statistics. The instructional model has been constructed by considering both the learner's cognitive, affective and instrumental faulty patterns of thinking and the requirements of the mathematical subject matter. The programming approach provides a method of abstraction, generalization and formalization of concepts which are manifested in experimental processes and results. This approach, which is more concrete and procedural, can assist in assimilating probabilistic concepts into the existing cognitive schemes of the learner. The concrete and procedural schemata could be replaced later by a more formal schemata. Examples of the programming approach as well as examples of detection, identification and treatment of faulty patterns are presented. The suggested instructional model ...