Understanding difficulty in the Grade 12 Maths Literacy Examinations

I attended the Marang symposium at Wits last Friday which considered ways in which we can judge last years examinations by taking a closer look at the papers and assessment structure. The talks centred around the questions:

• What do different ways of classifying questions reveal about the relationship between the intended and examined curriculum?

• What does this reveal about the relationship between the policy documents and practice?

• What role can taxonomies play in analyzing the standard of the examinations, the spread of mathematical and science activities and what do they reveal about nature of the examinations and the conceptualization of the subjects?

Within our maths literacy community , one of the most often expressed concerns is about thinking levels (cognitive levels of taxonomy). And as such this meeting and the speakers illuminated just how difficult and subjective it is to pin it down. There were a general call for more examples of the different level questions and more problem solving higher order questions instead of more difficult levels of caluclation questions.

Prof Hamsa Venkat kicked off by discussing a critique of  the Mathematical Literacy assessment taxonomy. Lynn Bowie looked at it from a mathematics point of view and also examined different taxonomies. Arnout (always entertaining) then did a summary and his take on the issues and perspectives by providing a critique, not only on the two papers, but also on assessment practices regarding maths and maths literacy in general. You can (must)  listen to the actual podcasts of the sessions, by clicking here

Hamsa’s presentation (View while listening to her podcast- sorry I ahve not had a chance or had the energy to link it):

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Lynn’s presentation: (View while listening to her podcast):

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Our photo album:
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Mathsliteracy Resources (weekly)

• Assessment, remedation & pre-requisite knowledge for mathematical literacy

  Great resource for Arnout http://www.brombacher.co.za for mathematical literacy. During April 2008 Brombacher and Associates ran a four-day workshop for FET College lecturers on the assessment and remediation of the pre-requisite knowledge and skills assumed to be necessary for students to be able to study Mathematical Literacy. The workshop was presented by Aarnout Brombacher and Marc North. It focussed on the use of pre-tests to determine the knowledge and skills that college students have at the start of the programme and on the teaching of the necessary knowledge and skills in those cases where the students do not have these.

  Tags: ml, ml123, assessment, mathematicalliteracy, basic operations, numbers, Order of operations, percentage, ratio, proportion, rate

• Assessment and remediation of the pre-requisite knowledge and skills for Mathematical Literacy

  Number booklet coverDuring April 2008 Brombacher and Associates ran a four-day workshop for FET College lecturers on the assessment and remediation of the pre-requisite knowledge and skills assumed to be necessary for students to be able to study Mathematical Literacy. The workshop, presented by Aarnout Brombacher and Marc North,was attended by one lecturer from each of the 50 FET Colleges.

  The workshop focussed on the use of pre-tests to determine the knowledge and skills that college students have at the start of the programme and on the teaching of the necessary knowledge and skills in those cases where the students do not have these.

  Click on the link above  to access the pre-test and remediation materials developed for the workshop as well as the powerpoint slide shows that supported the teaching these could be used by college lecturers in their remediation efforts.

  Downloads:

  Handout (44 pages): Numbers (download)

  o Presentation: Order of operations (download)
  o Presentation: Percentage (download)
  o Presentation: Ratio (download)
  o Presentation: Proportion (download)
  o Presentation: Rate (download)

  Handout (40 pages): Patterns and Relationships (download)

  Handout (11 pages): Space, Shape and Orientation (download)

  Tags: aarnout brombacher, mark north, ml, mathematical, literacy, mathematics, space, shapeandspace, patterns, relationships

• GUIDELINE DOCUMENT FOR CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT (CASS) PORTFOLIO – Maths Literacy Teacher’s Network

  Tags: projects, assignments, investigations, LO1, AS12.1.3, cass, portfolios, gr12, programme ofassessment, learner’s portfolios, teacher portfolios, evaluating portfolios, assessment, LO4, AS12.4.3, AS12.4.4, Food and Recipes, Painting and Decorating

• It’s all cricket’s fault

  Mathematics is used in interesting, and often less than accurate, ways. Newspapers present graphs showing apparently correlated variables, but with a little thought, some of the time you will find that whilst it looks like two variables are connected, there is actually no cause and effect. Sometimes this is because there is a third factor causing the movements in the variables — for example, if it is hot and sunny, sales of sunscreen lotion increase, as do sales of air-conditioners. If you plot these sales against each other, you find a correlation. However, they are only connected because of a third variable, the summer weather. Of course, an unscrupulous media can draw connections where they don’t exist for more political ends, such as blaming an increase in crime on the sales of hooded sweatshirts. And politicians have been known to confuse cause and effect, thinking that a local crime increase is due to the increased police presence, rather than the other way around.

  Tags: LO2, ml, ml123, mathematics, as10.2.3, as11.2.3, as12.2.3, cricket scores

  • Great resources. Maybe we can change it for South African cricket scores? – By Maggie Verster

Posted from Diigo. The rest of ML 123 group favorite links are here.