The reply was "If they want this qualification, they have to be able to read". And students do have to be able to read. I do sympathise with those who find it hard but I'm not sure we have the balance right.
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Really interesting Stella and @tombutton.bsky.social, I'm going to look more into those links - it's so interesting to compare.
I had a similar conversation with Sue at RME where I asked her how context could be included in assessment vs literacy demands and got a very similar response!
There's at least 2 different meanings of 'literacy demands' in maths:
- Making the language clear and understandable by rephrasing questions can make them more accessible.
- Removing context-specific aspects to reduce the amount of words.
I really like this distinction. I think it drills down to the heart of the debate - it can get quite muddied at times.
The fine line to tread is being able to is how can we support the first point while including context. And how we can include context which benefits all students.
My thought on this is that England does quite well on international comparisons of reading and literacy.
With caveats, at least as good as Finland, and perhaps ahead of NL.
I've been disappointed by the assessment of 'modelling' in the new specification. Rather than testing if a student can set up a suitable model for a given context, instead a model has been chosen for them and a context pasted on. This doesn't seem helpful to anyone.
I remember a question about scratch cards being quite polarising. If you have no idea what a scratch card is then it makes the question more demanding. We must be very careful when including contexts.
I think this is a really big concern about contexts, there can be a minefield of potential biases introduced. I remember seeing questions set on topics such as cricket or F1 which were queried as benefiting those who were familiar with them.
Public exams are there to test what's been taught and what's been learnt. If contexts become a big part of examining the mathematics course, then many clear examples should be provided for the teachers.
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I had a similar conversation with Sue at RME where I asked her how context could be included in assessment vs literacy demands and got a very similar response!
- Making the language clear and understandable by rephrasing questions can make them more accessible.
- Removing context-specific aspects to reduce the amount of words.
I'd support the former but not the latter.
The fine line to tread is being able to is how can we support the first point while including context. And how we can include context which benefits all students.
With caveats, at least as good as Finland, and perhaps ahead of NL.