Questions tagged [assessment]
Assessment questions ask how to properly, effectively, and efficiently ascertain the abilities of students. This doesn't necessarily involve numerical grades, but rather is focused on an overall characterization of knowledge/ability.
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Instructions for a problem set
These are my instructions for a problem set that I am giving for a Math 60 (Intro Algebra) class at a community college. What do you think? Are they clear? What would you add or subtract?
These ...
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Teaching arithmetic operations ($+ - \times \div$) to a 3 year old
What is the best way to teach the standard arithmetic operations ($+ - \times \div$) to a 3 year old child?
Also: How we do know if the child has really understood it?
can a kid be 3 years old ...
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Questions for Oral Examination in Mathematics
I am working on some research on implementation of oral assessment in mathematics classroom, and I was wondering are there any questions/problems/concepts in mathematics that can be only assessed ...
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Can homework play a substantial role in the assessment of understanding in university math?
Ideally, I'd like my students' grades to be based on more than just exams, because I think that certain tasks, such as writing proofs, aren't best performed in a test environment. Using homework for ...
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How to assess an undergraduate mathematics program?
Our university and department, like most, are required to "assess" our program annually. In the past our department has done this by e.g. picking one of the learning outcomes for our program and a ...
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What happens when the state mandates college math placement policies?
The state of Illinois is currently considering a bill to mandate that all public institutions accept a score of 3 on every Advanced Placement exam. Bill here. The lobbyists in favor of the bill claim ...
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How can you determine the quality of your teaching, or someone else's?
The question in the title is immensely subjective and broad, and so I would like to narrow it to an answerable question:
What measures are in common use by administrators and researchers in ...
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elementary level assessment tools
I'm looking for an assessment tool to ability group 4th and 5th grade students, in particular setting a "top" group. This group would receive more enrichment, less practice on concepts and a faster ...
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Is it a good idea to use past questions in examinations?
When it comes to writing examinations, there are two options I am considering.
Write the entire exam originally (which will of course mean some well-known proofs, thereby technically not making it ...
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Project/Assessment based on Flatland for Secondary Geometry Class
One of my favorite books is Flatland by Edwin Abbott, which is incredibly rich in geometric concepts especially relating to dimensionality. I would really like to assign it to my secondary geometry ...
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How to read better?
In this semester I've realized that many of the problems (my) students have can be solved by reading better. The most recent example I've encountered was in the last exam; I asked them the following:
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Placement tests for middle school math
Our district has changed its approach to placing students in grades 6 and 7 math classes. Students considered for placement above grade level must now take a test composed of problems drawn from the ...
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Is every number a multiple of one? [closed]
On a 4th grade test the question was asked:
17 is a multiple of only two numbers, 1 and 17. Tell why this
statement is true.
If it is true then every number must be a multiple of 1 since 1 is a ...
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Requiring basic skills to pass a course without increasing their grading weight
As I grade my final exams, I sometimes find calculus 1 students who will pass with a C but lack critical skills like the chain rule. This can be for a number of reasons, for instance:
They understand ...
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How do I get my middle schoolers warmed back up at the start of the year prior to giving a placement test
I'm going to be teaching small (< 10 students) but very mixed group of middle schoolers (US system, ages 11-13) who have had varying amounts of pre-algebra and algebra instruction thus far. I need ...
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How can PISA released questions be used to improve the mathematical competencies of students?
The purpose of this question is to ask for your experiences using PISA released questions at classroom. How do you use them to improve the mathematical competencies of your students? How do you ...
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Grading homework problems on completion vs. correctness, and overall grading
I taught Calculus 2 at my institution the past two semesters and several students have left comments in their course evaluations that advocate grading homework problems based on whether they were ...
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What research is there on the effectiveness of multiple choice questions for summative assessment?
This is perhaps the question that some thought Grading scale: how to handle multiple choice questions with different number of choices really was. I'm of the opinion that multiple choice questions ...
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Exam philosophy
I'm curious if anyone knows of any books, studies, or other resources on the philosophy of creating and grading mathematics exams. After working as a graduate TA for 4 years and dealing with a wide ...
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Timed Exams, More Generally
This question is similar to "Should I design my exams to have time-pressure or not?", but is, I think, sufficiently different to deserve its own space.
Naively, there are two benefits to placing (any,...
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In math courses with writing requirements, how should large papers be graded fairly?
In a course I am teaching this semester, I am required to have my students write a large (6-12 page or so) paper worth 40% of their grade. Many other colleges have courses with similar requirements, e....
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How to convey the meaning of "mathematical maturity"?
Some university-level courses have no specific prerequisites, yet are mathematically involved to the extent that someone with little to no experience in math will probably find themselves in over ...
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Making standards for "showing work" explicitly clear to students
I do not mean for this thread to be a discussion of whether or not students should show work on an exam, whether they should be docked points for just "seeing" an answer and writing it down, whether ...
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Is it worth grading calculus homework?
I am a young math educator. I've TAed four semesters of calculus for various instructors. Some instructors have required me to grade selected problems in homework sets. Another required me simply to ...
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How to standardize grading across several sections of a course?
Suppose you're the instructor of a large university course split into several sections, each of which has a TA. (Think of a giant lecture-style calculus course with several hundred students that meet ...
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Placing incoming college freshmen: basic algebra, pre-calc, calc
Assume that you have incoming college freshmen, so you might have access to their high school courses and grades, as well as their results on a placement test offered by your college. Also, assume ...
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Is required reading of the text effective, and how can it be assessed?
This will likely depend on the class, of course. But I've asked calculus students in the past if (a) they regularly read the textbook and (b) whether this is helpful for them and (c) whether they like ...
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