Category Archives: mathematical misunderstandings

The significance of rounding and significant figures

Posted on September 4, 2011 by Sally Jordan

I now find myself chairing the production of two new Open University modules, so writing course materials ought to take priority over writing this blog. That’s a pity, because there’s so much assessment-related that I want to reflect on. As a compromise, I’ve … Continue reading →

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Open-ended and multiple-choice versions of the same test

Posted on August 19, 2011 by Sally Jordan

I’ve just read an excellent paper. It’s rather old, so old indeed that I might have been one of the ‘first year secondary school pupils’ involved in the evaluation! (though I don’t think that I was). The full reference is: Bishop, … Continue reading →

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Can formative-only assignments tell you about student misunderstandings?

Posted on March 17, 2011 by Sally Jordan

When I was doing the original analysis of student responses to Maths for Science assessment questions, I concentrated on questions that had been used summatively and also on questions that required students to input an answer rather than selecting a … Continue reading →

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More on feedback

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Sally Jordan

Picking up on Silvester’s comment on my previous post…I think it is really important that we stop and think before saying that a student answer to an e-assessment question is wrong because some detail of it is wrong. As with … Continue reading →

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More about units

Posted on March 15, 2011 by Sally Jordan

OpenMark e-assessment questions were used for the first time in a little 10-credit module called Maths for Science  that has been running since 2002. I did some analysis years ago into the mistakes that students make, but I’m about to … Continue reading →

Posted in mathematical misunderstandings, question analysis, units | Tagged , , | 3 Comments