Mathematics Assessment: Current Issues and Trends
Supervisor: Patricia Cretchley
Description: The teaching and learning of Mathematics is changing dramatically in many parts of the world, and so too are views on Mathematics assessment. This course stimulates debate on Mathematics assessment by examining past and current practice at all levels, and examining them against currently popular theories and frameworks for learning, social constructivism in particular. Recent concerns about issues of inflexibility, time-constraints and stresses associated with traditional style examinations are discussed, and pedagogical approaches and equity issues are debated in relation to current moves towards more flexibility in the choice of assessment tasks, project work, group assignments, unsupervised take-home and on-line examinations. The controversial issue of benchmarking, both nationally and internationally, is also considered. Current literature, findings associated with the TIMS studies, and reports in two ICMI (International Council for Mathematics Instruction) studies on assessment in Mathematics, provide the backbone of this course.
Prerequisites: TBA
Main text: TBA
Some potential study topics
| What is Maths? Ron Addie | Attitude and belief Patricia Cretchley | Computer Algebra Ed Patricia Cretchley | Assessment issues Patricia Cretchley |
| Education research? Patricia Cretchley | Bridge gaps Patricia Cretchley | Gender equity Patricia Cretchley | Teaching geometry Patricia Cretchley |
| Math history Patricia Cretchley | Gen Lin Models Peter Dunn | Bayesian stats Paul Fahey | Survey sampling Ashley Plank |
| Maths Methods Tony Roberts | Quantum Computing Tony Roberts | Water waves Tony Roberts | Games theory Tony Roberts |
| Parallel numerics Tony Roberts | Hydro stability Sergey Suslov | Math Biology Sergey Suslov | Banach spaces Oleksiy Yevdokimov |
| Fundamental Maths Education Oleksiy Yevdokimov | Number history Oleksiy Yevdokimov |