PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Changes in assessment practices of calculus instructors while piloting research-based curricular activities
Page: 1201
We report our analysis of changes in assessment practices of introductory calculus instructors piloting weekly labs designed to enhance the coherence, rigor, and accessibility of central concepts in their classroom activity. Our analysis compared all items on midterm and final exams created by six instructors prior to their participation in the program (355 items) with those they created during their participation (417 items). Prior exams of the six instructors were similar to the national profile, but during the pilot program increased from 11.3% of items requiring demonstration of understanding to 31.7%. Their questions involving representations other than symbolic expressions changed from 36.7% to 58.5% of the items. The frequency of exam questions requiring explanations grew from 4% to 15.1%, and they shifted from 0.8% to 4.1% of items requiring an open-ended response. We examine qualitative data to explore instructors’ attributions for these changes.