Do prospective teachers know their students' errors in statistical inference?

Abstract The aim of this work was to assess the knowledge of students' errors in statistical inference in a group of Spanish prospective High and Secondary School teachers. This knowledge is part of the cognitive facet of teachers' didactic-mathematical knowledge. A sample of seventy prospective teachers was asked to describe their students' most likely error in carrying out a statistical test and a confidence interval, after having solved themselves a problem of each type. The responses are classified in agreement with the different steps in the procedures (selecting a procedure, problem setting, conceptual, procedural, and interpretative errors). The categories in each of these stages are determined by considering the errors described in research on understanding statistical inference. The results suggest a medium knowledge of the most frequent errors by prospective teachers; however, there is a general lack of precision and little awareness of errors linked to the significance level and p-value.