Dear Leanne
Thanks for your interest and the link. What you say about students' comments along the lines of being crap at maths and proud of it(!) is something I think most lecturers have seen, even in casual conversations with other dog walkers, people down the pub or whatever, I often hear "Oh I could never do maths" when they'd never say "I never learned to read". We need to move away from maths phobia being a badge of honour!
I don't think any particular approach will be perfect for all students, but the important thing is that any approach that makes them think what they are doing, rather than just plugging numbers into a god-given formula, is bound to be useful. So I'd get your task reinstated if you can.
This also applies to maths students as well as 'service' maths. For a second year class for maths students, I once asked for a page on "What are logs and exponentials and why do we teach them?". Only very few gave the integral representation of ln(x) or the ODE giving exp(x), or that they were inverse functions (for suitable domains) but some said they were 'opposites' so I suppose I should be grateful! They could all trot out the manipulation rules and some did even though I told them not to!
I have retired now, but volunteer in a local school. For the GCSE class, I quickly had to ban the phrases like "I hate maffs!", "I am more of a words person" and other such crap. The other problem I have at this level, and even at A level, was that what you ask then to do a question, they think I am asking them for the answer, not a structured and coherent solution properly laid out with words, even if it's just 'hence' or 'therefore'. I think we should insist on this more: for example, starting with "Consider the equation" would encourage them to consider if it is an equation, expression, identity, inequality etc. They seldom write stuff down and some can't even copy accurately from the board or simply don't do so unless you stand over them. I now better realise the task faced by teachers and am full of respect for them.
In the end, unless we get the message that maths is also about communication, for some students, problems simply devolve down to memorising 'magic' formula. I am sure we have all heard students say "I can't do this question" and when asked why not, they say "I don't know the formula!". They simply give up then and don't have the confidence to try something in case it's wrong!
Anyway, that's enough grumping from me ...
Best wishes,
Martin
-----Original Message-----
From: Leanne Rylands <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 06 September 2022 18:57
To: Martin Greenhow (Staff) <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [External] diagnostic tests
Dear Martin,
Some years ago we had a maths subject that had a task similar to what you mention. The subject disappeared for reasons that I don't recall, but most likely had something to do with what business wsbted for their students.
A paper on what was done is here
https://openjournals.library.sydney.edu.au/index.php/IISME/article/view/6319
It's interesting to read your comments - thanks Regards Leanne.
Associate Professor Leanne Rylands
Centre for Research in Mathematics and Data Science and Head, Mathematics Education Support Hub (MESH), Learning Futures Portfolio
On Tue, 6 Sep 2022, Martin Greenhow (Staff) wrote:
>
> Dear Don and Leanne,
>
>
>
> I have just read your interesting article
>
>
>
> Diagnostic Tests: Purposes and Two Case Studies
>
>
>
> in MSOR Connections, and offer the following comments:
>
>
>
> Doing a diagnostic test in itself is useful since it sweeps out the
> cobwebs when students arrive at university after the summer break.
> E-assessment allow them to try a test and then dust off again what the
> once know (hopefully!) and try again for a 'better mark'. So even if
> nothing is done with their results, it's still useful to the majority
> (apart from the backsliders who don't do it and they are usually the
> ones who need it most!). So ideally some sort of follow up is needed
> for everyone to take it seriously. Often a mastery mark is needed (say
> 80%) but this tends to punish weaker students for being bad at maths, as they see it. They are not likely to see it as a helpful task set by loving lecturers!
>
>
>
> A way round this is to get students to reflect on what they know/don't
> know first, so I wrote some 'Confidence appraisal' questions in maths e.g.
> https://www.mathcentre.ac.uk:8081/mathseg/
>
> which you can select from according to what they might need early in
> the academic year. Then you can ask them to write a short plan (1-2
> pages) of what they intend to do next (see maths support person,
> revise A level notes, ask friends, attend bridging class etc),
> appending a print out of their appraisal question responses (screen
> shotted into Word usually). That forms part 1 of the task. Then some
> sort of intervention occurs and for part 2 they retake the appraisal
> test again in week 5 or 6 say, and again reflect on their needs and performances in interim tests on the same material.
>
>
>
> The above task can be included in a study skills module say, or in a
> maths module and is marked when completed. The advantage is that they
> have to verbalise how they feel about the maths topics you ask about
> and communicate properly their reflections and plan. This sounds a bit
> 'touchy-feely' but it means that weak students can get a really good mark, whilst students who think they know it all might do poorly.
>
>
>
> Finally, if there is time, you can set similar questions 'for real' so
> that students who say they are confident, really can do the questions.
>
>
>
> The above worked pretty well with our foundations students where we
> focussed on arithmetic, a bit of probability and descriptive stats and
> lots of algebra, but no calculus or functions since most had not got A level maths (or a poor grade).
>
>
>
> Let me know if you try it!
>
>
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Martin
>
>
>
--
This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.
########################################################################
To unsubscribe from the SIGMA-NETWORK list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=SIGMA-NETWORK&A=1
This message was issued to members of www.jiscmail.ac.uk/SIGMA-NETWORK, a mailing list hosted by www.jiscmail.ac.uk, terms & conditions are available at https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/policyandsecurity/
|
