Development of Japanese Verbal Probability Learning: Through the Design of Learning in Junior High School Mathematics Related to Japanese Language Arts Education Research

Abstract

　　 This paper aims to examine what kind of teaching is needed to understand the complexity and ambiguity of verbal probability. Although it has been proposed in other countries to make it a content of study, it has yet to be adequately taught in Japan. Therefore, in this study, we adopted a proof-of-existence type of research method, which shows through case studies that phenomena that fit theoretically derived hypotheses can actually occur. Related to research in the area of word and vocabulary instruction in Japanese language studies, we designed and implemented a lesson as a mathematics course for second-year junior high school students, with the goals of making students aware of the characteristics of their individual perceptions of Japanese probability expressions and of considering the characteristics/trends of numerical and verbal probability. As a result, we concluded that it is possible to understand the complexity and ambiguity of verbal probability by conducting a class in which problems are set in a concrete situation that allows learners to compare numerical and verbal probability and incorporate activities that enable them to become aware of their individual ways of perceiving verbal probability.