Task Design in Undergraduate Mathematics Leigh Wood Chair, Standing Committee on Mathematics Education Australian Mathematical Society Associated Dean, Learning and Teaching, Faculty of Business and Economics, Macquarie University Support provided by ALTC, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. The views expressed in this presentation do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council Ltd. 1

Overview Designing tasks for tertiary undergraduate degree programs Alignment of learning Assessment in classes & units Assessment task design framework & decisions Standards of achievement Marking using a rubric Feedback Reflection 2

Alignment of learning Program Module Class 3 Alignment of learning through a program Task design needs to be considered in the bigger picture (Leigh, 2012). Each individual task leads to developing outcomes over a program.

Assessment in classes 4 Assessment and feedback cycle (formative assessment)

Assessment in units 5 Assessment and feedback cycle (summative assessment)

Assessment task design framework (adapted from Hughes, 2009) 6

Design features Purpose Text type Roles and relationships Subject matter Mode Medium 4 Examples (Handout, P. 2- P.4) 7 Assessment task design decisions

Standards of achievement The types of knowledge can be defined as: Conceptual: Domain-specific and/or skill-specific conceptual knowledge – “knowing that” Procedural: Domain-specific and/or skills specific procedural knowledge – “knowing how” Professional: Professional knowledge  “knowing for” (i.e. values, attitudes) related to practice and including graduate capabilities. Example: Mathematical communication outcomes for graduates (Handout, P.5) 8

Marking using a rubric 9 Communicate the standards of the assessment task to students and markers. Define the standards for the different graduate capabilities and learning outcomes. Rubrics are designed by applying the standards to the learning outcomes assessed in the task.

Feedback 10 Critical: it points the way to achieving the learning outcomes. Individual feedback for summative assessment tasks. A marking rubric with a short individual comment. Learning support activities: Students at risk of not meeting the required standards

Reflection Example: Reflection on working as a team (assignment) 1.How did your team usually work together? Please give some specific examples. 2.What was your particular role (or roles) for the project? 3.What did you feel were the best aspects of your project? 4.What problems did you face, and how did you address those problems? 5.What would you do differently next time you carried out a project of this type? 6.In what ways did carrying out this project help you (or not) in your learning for your degree? 7.What advice would you give to students in the next [insert unit name] group? 8.What advice would you give the lecturer of the next [insert unit name] group? Example: Reflection on your learning (examination question) 11

Final word Creating an exciting and challenging program for all our students. Be creative 12

References 13 Hughes, C. (2009). Assessment as text production: Drawing on systemic functional linguistics to frame the design and analysis of assessment tasks. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 34, 5, Wood, L.N. (2012). How to align assessment: learning through a program approach. Sydney: Macquarie University. Wood, L.N. & Smith, N.F. (2007). Graduate attributes: Teaching as learning. International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology, 38, 6,