Perceptions of difficulty

Wood, LN; Smith, NF

Perceptions of difficulty

Wood, LN Smith, NF

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Publisher:: John Wiley & Sons
Publication Type:: Conference
Citation:: Wood, L. and Smith, N. 2002 'Perceptions of difficulty', 2nd International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics, John Wiley & Sons, University of Crete, Greece, pp. NA-NA.
Issue Date:: 2002

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Wood, LN	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Smith, NF	en_US
dc.contributor.editor	Vakalis I	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2009-11-09T02:47:12Z
dc.date.available	2009-11-09T02:47:12Z
dc.date.issued	2002	en_US
dc.identifier	2004003569	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Wood, L. and Smith, N. 2002 'Perceptions of difficulty', 2nd International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics, John Wiley & Sons, University of Crete, Greece, pp. NA-NA.	en_US
dc.identifier.issn	0-471-46332-9	en_US
dc.identifier.other	E1	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/2106
dc.description.abstract	Seventy students from a first semester calculus course ranked 8 mathematics tasks as to perceived difficulty before attempting these tasks and actual difficulty after completing the tasks. Students also completed two examinations, one based on facts and procedures and the other based on applications and concepts. The tasks were designed to fit into a taxonomy of mathematical skills. We have found that students perceive questions to be difficult for a number of reasons. In general, questions requiring conceptual understanding ae regarded as more difficult that those which require factual recall or the use of routine procedures. There was not a strong link between familiarity with the question type and ranking of difficulty. Students were sufficiently familiar with the some typ es of question to be able to perceive inherent difficulties, such as a complex differentiation. We found that in five out of eight cases, students' perceptions of the difficulty did not change after they had done the task. In one case they found the question to be more difficult than expected and in two cases to be easier. It is not clear to us why students found one question to be more difficult than expected. It may be that some of the complexities (such as the use of the intermediate value theorem) were not immediately apparent. It is also significant that NESB students rated this question as easier than ESB students. This was the case both before and after attempting the question. Student comments are also presented.	en_US
dc.publisher	John Wiley & Sons	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	2nd International Conference on the Teaching of Mathematics	en_US
dc.relation.isbasedon	http://www.math.uoc.gr/~ictm2/	en_US
dc.title	Perceptions of difficulty	en_US
dc.type	Conference
utslib.location	New Jersey, USA	en_US
utslib.citation.startpage	NA	en_US
utslib.citation.endpage	NA	en_US
utslib.identifier.org	Science	en_US
utslib.location.activity	University of Crete, Greece	en_US
utslib.copyright.status	closed_access

Abstract:

Seventy students from a first semester calculus course ranked 8 mathematics tasks as to perceived difficulty before attempting these tasks and actual difficulty after completing the tasks. Students also completed two examinations, one based on facts and procedures and the other based on applications and concepts. The tasks were designed to fit into a taxonomy of mathematical skills. We have found that students perceive questions to be difficult for a number of reasons. In general, questions requiring conceptual understanding ae regarded as more difficult that those which require factual recall or the use of routine procedures. There was not a strong link between familiarity with the question type and ranking of difficulty. Students were sufficiently familiar with the some typ es of question to be able to perceive inherent difficulties, such as a complex differentiation. We found that in five out of eight cases, students' perceptions of the difficulty did not change after they had done the task. In one case they found the question to be more difficult than expected and in two cases to be easier. It is not clear to us why students found one question to be more difficult than expected. It may be that some of the complexities (such as the use of the intermediate value theorem) were not immediately apparent. It is also significant that NESB students rated this question as easier than ESB students. This was the case both before and after attempting the question. Student comments are also presented.

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http://hdl.handle.net/10453/2106