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The Mathematics Writer's Checklist: The Development of a Preliminary Assessment Tool for Writing in Mathematics
Author(s) -
Stonewater Jerry K.
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
school science and mathematics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.135
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 1949-8594
pISSN - 0036-6803
DOI - 10.1111/j.1949-8594.2002.tb18216.x
Subject(s) - mathematics education , checklist , context (archaeology) , class (philosophy) , notation , variety (cybernetics) , reform mathematics , representation (politics) , connected mathematics , computer science , mathematics , psychology , arithmetic , politics , paleontology , artificial intelligence , political science , law , cognitive psychology , biology
The use of writing as a pedagogical tool to help students learn mathematics is receiving increased attention at the college level (Meier & Rishel, 1998), and the Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000) built a strong case for including writing in school mathematics, suggesting that writing enhances students' mathematical thinking. Yet, classroom experience indicates that not all students are able to write well about mathematics. This study examines the writing of a two groups of students in a college‐level calculus class in order to identify criteria that discriminate “;successful” vs. “;unsuccessful” writers in mathematics. Results indicate that “;successful” writers are more likely than “;unsuccessful” writers to use appropriate mathematical language, build a context for their writing, use a variety of examples for elaboration, include multiple modes of representation (algebraic, graphical, numeric) for their ideas, use appropriate mathematical notation, and address all topics specified in the assignment. These six criteria result in The Mathematics Writer's Checklist , and methods for its use as an instructional and assessment tool in the mathematics classroom are discussed.