Pam Bishop - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Pam Bishop

In January 2000 a network of discipline-based centers was established for higher education in the... more In January 2000 a network of discipline-based centers was established for higher education in the UK, including a Mathematics, Statistics & Operational Research (MSOR) Network which will: support and enhance academic practice in teaching MSOR; coordinate networks of MSOR academics; disseminate innovation and good practice in learning, teaching and assessment; create a forum for the exchange of information, ideas, philosophies and research findings; and exploit and harness change associated with new technology, integrating this into pedagogic developments. The presentation will outline our current and future plans to take full advantage of technology to make teachers of Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research more effective in Higher Education. The prize will be that students will be educated to their full potential in these subjects. (Author) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. A Strategy for the Use of Technology to Enha...

The Mathematical Gazette, 1997

Third Conference on Engineering Education - Access, Retention and Standards, 2003

MSOR Connections, 2000

The following talk, presented at the Flexible Learning in Mathematics conference organised by the... more The following talk, presented at the Flexible Learning in Mathematics conference organised by the Mathwise User Group, illustrates good practice drawn from departmental teaching and learning pages and other interactive teaching and assessment resources in mathematics, and also ...

Effective Learning and Teaching in Engineering, 2004

... problems. For example, between 1993 and 1996, UMIST identiﬁed that a proportion of students e... more ... problems. For example, between 1993 and 1996, UMIST identiﬁed that a proportion of students entering various disciplines were not coping with the engineering maths courses because of a lack of basic mathematical skills. This ...

MSOR Connections, 2002

W hen the LTSN Generic Centre asked all subject centres to articulate the three most important is... more W hen the LTSN Generic Centre asked all subject centres to articulate the three most important issues on assessment in their subject the LTSN Maths, Stats & OR Network included the need to match appropriate assessment methods to learning outcomes for knowledge, basic skills, understanding and problem solving. This was the second workshop to address these issues. Peter summarised some weaknesses in current assessment practice: tasks may not match stated outcomes; criteria may not match tasks or outcomes; criteria may not be known to students, or they may not understand them; overuse of one mode of assessment; overload of students and staff; unduly specific criteria which create a straitjacket; inadequate or superficial feedback (from Brown, G (2001) Assessment: A guide for lecturers) Assessment has many purposes but fundamentally it should be to ensure that students have learned and can apply what they have learned. As we have to link learning outcomes to assessment, the outcomes will be worded in terms of how we assess. If there are things we can't assess, we can't put them in an outcome, and don't have them as an expressed aim of our teaching. In statistics, even at school level, we would want students to be able to carry out each aspect of the handling data cycle to solve problems: • specify the problem; formulate questions; decide on data; what analysis to do; consider inferences • collect or obtain the necessary data by appropriate survey, experiment or from secondary sources • process and represent data; turn data into useable form • synthesise information and interpret results The vocabulary of learning outcomes is limited to active verbs that are capable of being interpreted objectively. This precludes the use of words like " understand " , " appreciate " , " discover " or even " think ". This is not necessarily a good thing; there are ideas behind these words which are worth trying to tease out into learning outcomes. Peter suggested a hierarchy of words, culled from various sources and based on Bloom's taxonomy of levels of understanding. He matched these with some relevant assessment modes in the following table: Relevant assessment modes Quiz. Part exam question. Multi choice. Assignment. Exam Coursework. Apply specific techniques to particular problem. Analyse a data set. Oral presentation. Case studies. Analyse computer output. Design and carry out an investigation. Prepare a report & present. Essay. Open ended questions. Critically …