Subject: Re: Appropriate basic skills placement test?
From: Ginny Keen (gkeen@bgnet.bgsu.edu)
Date: Wed Sep 20 2000 - 14:06:55 EDT
While at Western Michigan University several years ago, I created a new
placement test that was context-based computational problems. I reasoned
that seeing the problem "fifty divided by two and two-thirds" (written
numerically) was very different from working the problem "Shrubs requiring
two and two-thirds feet of space are to line a boundary 50' long. How many
shrubs are required?". So, in an effort to reward students who asked
themselves if their answer made sense and reworked the problem, if
necessary, I created contextualized problems. Informal data indicated that
students were more successful when tested with these problems.
I am no longer at WMU, so I'd recommend getting in touch with the Director
of the Modular Mathematics Program to see if they have a form of the
placement test they would share. (Check their web page for that info.-
www.wmich.edu, I think.) Good luck. Ginny
>At the risk of rehashing old issues let me pose the following problem to the
>group. Students spend most of their K-12 lives using a calculator in
>mathematics classes. Then they arrive at our college (and many others)
>and are
>asked to take a computational skills test without the calculator. Many do
>miserably and are placed into "Basic Math", a long way from the level of
>mathematics they are probably suited for. Clearly, the computational skills
>test can not be taken with a calculator because it would be too trivial.
>A word
>problem oriented exam seems more appropriate. We don't want to reinvent the
>wheel. Creating such a test would require lots of analysis to determine
>reasonable cut-off scores, etc.
>
>Question 1: Does anyone have a problem-based placement exam for basic
>mathematics (arithmetic)?
>
>Question 2: Does anyone have information on a problem-based basic math course
>which seems appropriate if a problem based placement exam is used?
>
>--
>Don Reichman
>Chair, Mathematics
>Mercer County Community College
>1200 Old Trenton Road
>Trenton, NJ 08690
>Work: 609-586-4800 ext. 3857
>
>
>
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-
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Dr. Virginia Keen, Bowling Green State University
Phone: 419/372-7363
Fax: 419/372-7291
Postal: EDTL, 529 Education Building, BGSU,
Campus: 133/135 Life Sciences Building
Bowling Green, OH 43403
E-Mail: gkeen@bgnet.bgsu.edu
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