One of the highest ambitions in educational technology is the move towards personalized learning. To this end, computerized adaptive learning (CAL) systems are developed. A popular method to track the development of student ability and item difficulty, in CAL systems, is the Elo Rating System (ERS). The ERS allows for dynamic model parameters by…

On the Australian Mathematics Competition, boys responded correctly to more questions than did girls, but this difference came largely from a handful of questions. Responses to questions where sex differences occurred are discussed. (MNS)

Interviews were used to find the frequency of different types of errors made by 95 sixth-year Papua New Guinea students on a mathematics test. The general trend was the same as for western students, but the Papua New Guinea students made far fewer careless errors. (MNS)

What two teachers found when they took a close look at the results of a sentence-solving test given in grades four and five is reported. Error patterns appeared less frequently after instruction but recurred on retention tests. How students can be helped is suggested. (MNS)

Nearly 48 percent of the students in Developmental Studies Mathematics courses at a major southern university during the fall of 1983 had taken college preparatory mathematics courses in high school. Some had even taken trigonometry, pre-calculus, or calculus. Yet, they were placed in university developmental studies mathematics courses because…

This report was designed to provide information on the effectiveness of the high school mathematics program in Hawaii, including identification of deficiency areas. The Stanford Achievement Test of Academic Skills (TASK) Level 1 was administered to 10,154 tenth-grade students in October 1983. In general, the students did not perform as well as the…

This report was designed to provide information on the effectiveness of the mathematics instructional program in grade 2 in Hawaii, including identification of deficiency areas. The Stanford Achievement Test, Primary Level II, was administered in May 1984 to 12,106 students in grade 2. In general, these students performed better than the national…

Results from testing long division with students from age 11 to Continuing Education were traced. A much higher percentage of wrong answers was given when there was an embedded zero in the answer. (MNS)

Dialogue from an interview with a child about division basic facts is presented. The facts are considered by groups, and specific errors are noted. Finally, remediation ideas are given. (MNS)

Findings on ratio and on fractions from a research project on strategies and errors in secondary mathematics are discussed, with typical errors described. Pupils seemed to learn rules without understanding. (MNS)

The Enright Arithmetic Program is a diagnostic-prescriptive program designed to facilitate an effective remedial effort. The program is based on establishing for each student the set of skills that student needs to learn and also identifies the error pattern causing the student's current failure. Practice materials for each needed skill are…

Results obtained from 11- and 15-year-olds on tests of understanding of decimal place value and its influence on addition and subtraction skills are reported and discussed. (MNS)

The Concepts in Secondary Mathematics and Science (CSMS) and Strategies and Errors in Secondary Mathematics (SESM) research projects based at Chelsa College, England, have shown the marked reluctance of secondary school students to use fractions when solving mathematical problems, even though they have been taught the topic for a number of years.…

Data from 32 state assessments in mathematics (conducted in 1984 and earlier) are analyzed in this document. The high degree of variability across the states is stressed, with some of the points of variation in the test development, administration, and analysis process noted. Information is then presented on topics on which students are doing well…

The projection of shadows task developed by Inhelder and Piaget was used to identify error patterns and solution strategies used by diverse populations in a sequence of proportion tasks. In Study A, two group tests were administered to 607 students from science and mathematics classes in grades 9 and 10. A sub-sample of 69 students was involved in…