In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Dennis Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>At 08:56 AM 11/16/01 -0700, Roy St Laurent wrote:
>>It's not clear to me whether recent posters are serious about these
>>examples, but
>>I will reiterate my previous post:
>>For most mathematics / statistics examinations, the "answer" to a
>>question is the
>>*process* by which the student obtains the incidental final number or
>>result.
>>The result itself is most often just not that important to evaluating
>>students'
>>understanding or knowledge of the subject. And therefore an unsupported
>>or lucky answer is worth nothing.
>the problems with the above are twofold:
>1. this assumes that correct answers are NOT important ... (which believe
>me if you are getting change from a cashier, etc. etc. ... ARE ... we just
>cannot say that knowing the process but not being able to come up with a
>correct answer ... = good performance)
>2. that answers without any OTHER supplied information on the part of the
>examinee can't be taken as "knowledge" when, it (sometimes) can be
>what if you asked on an exam ... the following:
>1. what is the mean of 10, 9, 8, 8 and 7? _____
>2. what is the mean of 27, 23, 19, 17 and 16? ____
>3. what is the mean of 332, 234, 198, 239, and 200? _____
>4. what is the mean of 23.4, 19.8, 23.1, 19.0, and 26.4? _____
>and, for each of 1 to 4 ... they put down in the blanks, the correct answers
>would you be willing to say that they know how to calculate the mean ...
>ie, they know the process that is needed (and can implement it)?
What is achieved by asking these questions on an exam? I can
see some SIMILAR, but quite different, questions. A good
exam, at any level, consists of a few real problems, not
the type of answer which a computer program could grind out.
>i think you would EVEN though there is no other supporting process
>information given by the examinee
--
This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
[EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
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