High school teachers' rankings of algebra problem difficulty were uncorrelated with student performance, while middle school teachers' rankings were accurate¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · theoretical r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2001 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? High school teachers (n = 39) judged verbal problems, especially algebra story problems, as most difficult for students, and their rankings showed no relation to student performance (τ(6) = 0). → Nathan 2001 q3 i? Middle school teachers (n = 30) predicted students would find story and word problems easiest and were very accurate in predicting student performance, τ(6) = .733, p = .034. → Nathan 2001 (2)

Evidence¶

Nathan 2001¶

Nathan, M. J., Koedinger, K. R., & Alibali, M. W. (2001). Expert Blind Spot: When Content Knowledge Eclipses Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Proceeding of the Third International Conference on Cognitive Science. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Expert+Blind+Spot%22+Nathan+Koedinger+Alibali

q3 · i? · theoretical · r2

Ranking task with 105 elementary, middle and high school teachers who ordered problems from easiest to most difficult; problems varied along arithmetic/algebraic and verbal/symbolic dimensions. The article reports the high school teachers' ranking was "not related to student performance at all, τ(6) = 0"; no effect size is printed.

"However, the ranking provided by high school teachers was not related to student performance at all, τ(6) = 0, providing further support for the EBS hypothesis."

Nathan 2001 (2)¶

Nathan, M. J., Koedinger, K. R., & Alibali, M. W. (2001). Expert Blind Spot: When Content Knowledge Eclipses Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Proceeding of the Third International Conference on Cognitive Science. https://www.google.com/search?q=%22Expert+Blind+Spot%22+Nathan+Koedinger+Alibali

q3 · i? · theoretical · r2

In the same ranking task, middle school teachers with less post-secondary mathematics education predicted story and word problems would be easiest and were "very accurate in predicting student performance, τ(6) = .733, p = .034"; no effect size is printed.

"Middle school teachers were very accurate in predicting student performance, τ(6) = .733, p = .034."

Discussion¶

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