[Maths-Education] The resource for the course

[Tim Rowland]

The blurb certainly raises some interesting questions in relation to
your (John M) own work on routine and non-routine examination questions, 
and the general aims of an education in mathematics. Maybe it is
appropriate for GCSE questions to be routine, in the sense suggested in 
the blurb? It is also true to say that even at undergraduate level,
most students steer clear of the unfamiliar - in content and even in
appearance - when it comes to timed examinations. A comment by one of my 
former colleagues, now retired, sticks in my mind: that a question that
the setters consider to be 'interesting' is, more often than not,
unsuitable. 

Tim Rowland
University of Cambridge

On Mon, 17 Sep 2001, John Monaghan wrote:

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> 
> I am in favour of ensuring students get the best exam results they can but
> I didn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sad honesty of the following
> publisher's blurb for a textbook series for GCSE maths for OCR
> 
> "The Resource for the course! Brand new books matched to the 2001
> specification to ensure your students have the best preparation possible
> for their GCSE exams.
> Written in the style of the examiners, the three textbooks (F, I, H) ensure
> your students are faced only with familiarity when they enter the exam
> room. Examiners' tips throughout the text give students advice on common
> pitfalls to be avoided in the exam."
> 
> 
> 
> 
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________________________

Dr Tim Rowland
Faculty of Education
University of Cambridge
Cambridge CB2 2PH
England

Phone [44] [0]1223 507298
Fax [44] [0]1223 300982
email tr202@cam.ac.uk

British Society for Research into Learning Mathematics
http://www.warwick.ac.uk/BSRLM/