Since Fall 2014 , the calculus instructors have been working on creating common questions to have on the final exam for calculus I. Faculty (both full and part time) meet to discuss pedagogy, common questions and creation of a pre-post test. The common questions are the first half of our final exam with the 2nd half written by each individual faculty member. Each semester, the questions are looked over and kept or modified. The purpose of the common questions is to make sure all calculus faculty are covering "core" topics in MAT22X. The attached data covers S16 and F16 results. Through the development of the common questions, we have been able to get math faculty to incorporate more physics applications into their curriculum since the 1st 3 questions are physics based. While the results of the common questions are poor (predominantly F level), the faculty require students to show their work on separate sheets of paper. When grading the scratch work, several instructors are finding that students have the right idea, but they missed a simple step. We will continue to analyze the results each semester.
| Attachment | Size |
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| calculuscommon-final-results-cats.docx | 312.11 KB |
Comments
Please note that Ernie Chavez, Melvin Artz and Xochitl Arroyo should also be part of this CATS. They are not in the system, and thus I cannot add them as contributors.
What I like the most is your informal professional learning community format, Becky. This is something all of us should be doing: implementing instruction, gathering data, analyzing the data in brainstorming solutions with our colleagues, and then starting the cycle over again. Well done, math folk!
Becky, I am excited to see all of the program level assessment in this round of CATS. It is inspiring me to work on more assessment for the Sociology courses. Smiles, Olga
Great discovery in finding that students are giving the correct answers on their scratch paper! Great idea to grade your student's scratch paper. I can relate that I struggled the right math answers, by missing a step in my college math classes. I am happy to hear that your department is making strives to reflect on how your students are learning and processing their learning. I love this idea!
Excellent job!
Catherine