Abstract
Thirty-four third-year junior high school students and 61 university students solved questions that required consideration of the probability of an entire event. One of the questions asked the probability of a regular die falling with any of its six sides facing upward. A total of 44% of the junior high school students and 84% of the university students answered correctly (P = 1). The most frequent wrong response in both groups was P = 1/6; the percentage of the junior high school students who gave this answer (29%) was higher than that of the university students (11%). The participants seemed to answer P = 1/6 because the probability of one side of the die facing upward is 1/6, although they were asked the probability of the entire event. These results suggest that students, especially those from junior high school, find it difficult to evaluate the probability of an entire event.
