Speaker
Description
For several years an on-going study has examined student performance in relation to the types of assessment task encountered in first year physics examinations. The typology used recognises four basic task types: routine operations, novel problems, interpretive questions and bookwork. Thus far it appears that average student performance is strongest for routine operations, variable for bookwork, weak for novel problems and weakest for interpretive questions. The present phase of the study examines the question of whether the students experience a given assessment task in the way the examiner intended – e.g. if a given question was intended by the examiner as a routine operation, do the students experience it as a routine operation or as a novel problem? The answer would appear to depend on the nature and degree of the students’ preparation. In addition it seems that no one assessment task fits neatly into a single task category. A student can experience a given task as a mix of several operations, each belonging to one of the four types.
| Level (Hons, MSc, <br> PhD, other)? | PhD |
|---|---|
| Consider for a student <br> award (Yes / No)? | yes |
| Would you like to <br> submit a short paper <br> for the Conference <br> Proceedings (Yes / No)? | Yes |
