Modifying standard questions to assess students' knowledge

This paper reports the findings of a preliminary study on students’ responses to two types of questions: standard questions and open-ended questions. Three standard questions each from the domains of Number, Measurement, and Geometry respectively, were slightly modified to form three open-ended questions. A class of P5 students of average ability was invited to attempt these two types of totally six questions. It was found that the students performed so well in the standard questions that not much information on differentiating their ability could be obtained. On the contrary, students’ responses to the open-ended questions varied so much that rich information on their knowledge was obtained for further enhancement of teaching and learning. Copyright © 2007 Hong Kong Association for Mathematics Education.