HS Partner/Group Math Tests - What is the Purpose?
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Anonymous
| My HS student had a group math test today, and I cannot figure out the purpose of the exercise? Groups seemed randomly assigned and the strong math members of the group did all the work. Is there a math teacher who can comment on this? |
pettifogger
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| Are you sure it was a test and not a group assignment/group project that was worth a big portion of the grade? I haven't heard of a group test but would also be curious as to the actual intent, as well as how do you know it was a 'test'. What was the math topic or topics? Were there many simple questions or one difficult multi step question that the kids had to work together to figure out how to start? Were they assigned different roles (i.e one presents, one does a write-up), etc? Were the kids orally tested individually after turning it in? Note that all of these sound like they would occur during a group project/assignment, and not a test. A test by commonly accepted definition is individual. |
Anonymous
| Ugh. Group work for math? Why?? |
Anonymous
| MCPS likes to push ‘collaborative’ assignments. I think it’s based on the idea that people can solve problems better in a group. |
Anonymous
| The real world is mostly about collaboration. Can't hurt to get numb to carrying the load early! |
Anonymous
| Beware of this practice. In theory it is to build a collaborative approach and have students teach each other. My calc teacher taught this way in HS. I was the least able of the group and learned nothing. I was suddenly making high As in math when I had been more of a B+ kind of student. |
Anonymous
Maybe if they are all at the same level of ability. Otherwise the ones that know what’s going on get stuck doing all the work. |
Anonymous
The point of this approach is mixed ability groups. The high ability folks are supposed to get the benefit of deeper learning by teaching the lower ability people. I was a low ability person and basically the high ability folks in the class did all the work and did not care to "teach". We all just wanted to get the work done. I think it takes a lot of maturity for the high ability folks to even realize that not everyone is understanding. In my own experience this was a terrible approach to classroom learning. Nobody benefitted. |
Anonymous
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I'm pretty sure the activity is meant to boost the grades of the kids who are not doing as well. DD's teacher sometimes pads the gradebook with these assignments to get some kids to pass. The teacher makes sure to partner the kids who are getting good grades with the ones who are struggling. The kids with the good grades do the work but they both get the same grade.
One time DD said there were a lot of problems and she was scrambling to do both sets in the given time so she was pretty stressed but generally she does not really care. |
Anonymous
| My kid's math teacher was admonished for giving out too many low grades, and made some of the tests group work to bring the scores up. |
Anonymous
| Group work for math classes is a major reform that is pushed for equity, alongside detracking. |
Anonymous
+1 From DC's experience it sounds like these assignments occur after a very low average on the previous test. |
Anonymous
In my kid's class, the teacher supposedly picked randomly from the group of 4 papers. Strong math students (2) had imposed discipline on the weak (2), but they couldn't be sure they showed all the work. This is pretty ridiculous. Points higher than typical quiz. |
Anonymous
If it's random, it punishes the strong student in a group with a weak student who couldn't even be bothered to copy properly. I hate it when teachers pull that stuff. Some students care about their GPAs and are aiming higher than education majors |
Anonymous
Math is taught differently now than it was 10 years ago. It’s a global trend to be more collaborative and less rote skill and drill. |