tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post5014101311274439663..comments2024-03-27T18:54:46.951+00:00Comments on Syniadau :: The Blog: PISA incredulitySyniadauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13876017048168055247noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-79416539321227840212013-12-10T16:52:05.792+00:002013-12-10T16:52:05.792+00:00Owen gave a link to the 2006 questions. The full ...Owen gave a link to the 2006 questions. The full set of questions for 2012 is <a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/pisaproducts/pisa2012-2006-rel-items-maths-ENG.pdf" rel="nofollow">here</a>. <br /><br />Unfortunately, it isn't clear from the paper what the time limit is, or whether calculators are allowed. However, as some square root calculations are required, I would guess they are. <br /><br />Have fun.MHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09329059309196746446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-62425002755780504432013-12-07T15:13:58.574+00:002013-12-07T15:13:58.574+00:00Sorry to come back so late in response to the more...Sorry to come back so late in response to the more recent comments.<br /><br />I suppose it is obvious that some people. like 20:11, couldn't do it. But there's no blame attached, for a lot of kids are in the same position.<br /><br />Looking at some reactions to PISA, particularly <a href="http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/head-teachers-give-verdict-state-6381707" rel="nofollow">this page</a> of head teachers' reactions, there probably is mileage in the idea that the questions were posed in an unfamiliar way. In other words that they required a degree of "verbal unravelling" that is different from the way a GCSE question would be asked. <br /><br />20:51 presents this perfectly. When stripped of the inessentials, Question 6 breaks down into five very easy calculations:<br /><br />What was the total distance travelled? ... 4 + 3 = 7 km<br />What was the total time? ... 9 + 6 = 15 mins<br />How many minutes are there in an hour? ... 60<br />What is 60 divided by 15? ... 4<br />What is 7 multiplied by 4? ... 28<br /><br />But if you go at it like a bull at a gate, you end up wondering what on earth to do with figures like 26.67 km/hr and 30 km/hr ... and someone like Pads needs to help you out. The rule of thumb I was given when I was fifteen is that the answers to questions like this are nearly always simple, round numbers. If you end up with a complicated fraction, you've probably got the answer wrong.<br /><br />I was going to ask what was so strange about Question 6 in the light of Question 5. But 20:51 has all but answered it. Quite rightly, Question 5 points out that going uphill is slower than going downhill. Therefore it's odd that Helen's speed on the journey <b>down</b> to the river is slower than her speed on the journey back. <br /><br />-<br /><br />I didn't intend this post to be about the politics of the way we educate our children, but I will say this. I don't think that we should look for political solutions to educational problems. If you put a <b>politician</b> on the spot about it, the only thing they can "do" about it is come up with <b>political</b> solutions ... more and more and more of them. But the fault is ours, as a society, for expecting politicians to be able to solve the problem. By and large, educational problems are better solved by those who dedicate their lives to education. It would generally be better to leave it to them to identify what external factors are problematic, and for politicians to propose solutions to those specific problems. <br /><br />It is clear to me that relative poverty is the biggest factor in poor educational achievement. Therefore the relative decline in educational achievement in Wales is to some extent explained by the relative decline in our economic performance. I think Professor David Egan made that point well when the last PISA results were published, as I mentioned in <a href="http://syniadau--buildinganindependentwales.blogspot.com/2010/12/poor-academic-performance-or-just-poor.html" rel="nofollow">this post</a> almost exactly three years ago.<br /><br />This time round, the same David Egan has pointed to Victoria Winkler's post on the <a href="http://www.bevanfoundation.org/blog/pisa-dont-panic/" rel="nofollow">Bevan Foundation blog</a> as the most sensible response to these new PISA results.<br /><br />I would say that although mitigating the effects of poverty, as emphasized by Huw Lewis, is a perfectly laudable thing to do, it would be much better to deal with poverty <b>itself</b> than to simply attempt to mitigate its effects. If Labour are serious about improving educational achievement, it is hard to understand why they don't want control over the economic levers (primarily tax powers) that would enable them to reduce relative poverty in Wales.MHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09329059309196746446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-86525970131924410212013-12-04T21:24:15.658+00:002013-12-04T21:24:15.658+00:00Thanks for highlighting this. It is simply stagger...Thanks for highlighting this. It is simply staggering. The worst part about this debacle is the utter complacency and 'It's not me guv!' attitude of the government, unions and teaching colleges. As a former teacher myself I am convinced that no reform is possible because every single pillar of the education system is rotten and blinded by self interest. Education is really very simple - get well trained and intelligent people to educate small groups of children, start with the basics and move on to more complex matters only when they have grasped the fundamentals. The endless obsession with an ever growing list initiatives/schemes/interventions and throwing cash at buildings and IT schemes has failed abysmally. You can succesfully educate kids (and adults) on a shoestring - the history of our own country proves it. All we need is to focus on the fundamentals of teaching (not the fantasy land methods of training colleges and inspectorates) and engender an attitude of valuing education and self improvement among our people. At present no political party has any idea of what to do.Tariannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-64357214303432552232013-12-04T21:05:45.243+00:002013-12-04T21:05:45.243+00:00Anon 20:51 - that won't work because you divid...Anon 20:51 - that won't work because you dividing by 2 and the two journeys were not equal.<br /><br />I'm please to say I did both answers in my head - that's O Levels for you. *smug*Padshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16372778051663029718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-55570899961897152562013-12-04T20:51:40.635+00:002013-12-04T20:51:40.635+00:00Correct answers, Owen, well done.
Mind, can you h...Correct answers, Owen, well done.<br /><br />Mind, can you help me out with something I don't understand. In the second question Helen is riding her bike for a total of 15 minutes and covers 7 km. As such, she'd cover 28 km in one hour, making her average speed 28 km per hour.<br /><br />But if I work out her average speed during her first session (4km's in 9 minutes) and her average speed in her second session (3km's in 6 minutes) and then average the two readings together I get a slightly different answer:<br /><br />(4/9)*60 = 26.67 km/hr<br />(3/6)*60 = 30 km/hr<br /><br />Average speed = 28.335 km/hour<br /><br />Why is this answer incorrect?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-2817000212273592072013-12-04T16:26:52.123+00:002013-12-04T16:26:52.123+00:00Those are, I would judge, fairly typical Intermedi...Those are, I would judge, fairly typical Intermediate-level GCSE maths questions, though I'm not sure if there still is an Intermediate-level. Here's a <a href="http://www.wjec.co.uk/uploads/papers/w13-4362-02.pdf" rel="nofollow">sample paper for Higher Level</a> for want of comparison. We need to remember that the A*-C pass rate for GCSE maths <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23791640" rel="nofollow">is 52.8%</a>.<br /><br />I don't think it's the nature of the questions themselves that's the problem. It's being able to complete lots of them in a set time (2 hours I think, and PISA is a long test). Plus, sample questions tend to be easier than the real thing. Here's a test paper from 2006 (<a href="http://www.oecd.org/pisa/38709418.pdf" rel="nofollow">pdf</a>).<br /><br />Oh, and to "ruin" it for everyone - 11am and 28 km/h.Owenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04347494808853759106noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-75267904540101145122013-12-04T09:15:30.275+00:002013-12-04T09:15:30.275+00:00Anon 00:45 - Er....yes. If you follow the link, th...Anon 00:45 - Er....yes. If you follow the link, the correct answers are supplied once you have submitted your own answers. I assume you haven't followed the link; or perhaps you did and it was all a bit beyond you.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-41637834522428442082013-12-04T00:45:26.190+00:002013-12-04T00:45:26.190+00:00Anon 23:56, You may have answered the questions bu...Anon 23:56, You may have answered the questions but are your answers correct? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-70125523623171370462013-12-03T23:56:18.683+00:002013-12-03T23:56:18.683+00:00MH -I was able to answer all the questions fairly ...MH -I was able to answer all the questions fairly easily, and I'm confident that I would have answered them correctly more quickly still when I was 15. However, although my mathematical ability is above average, I don't think I have ever been in the top 3%. I am amazed by the indicated success rates in relation to these questions. Furthermore, I don't understand why level 6 is any more difficult than level 5 or level 4. I would have thought that if you could answer one of those, you would have been able to answer the others. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-54049773384409442172013-12-03T21:12:10.107+00:002013-12-03T21:12:10.107+00:00MH 20:22
Well, if not you, who else?
You see, th...MH 20:22<br /><br />Well, if not you, who else?<br /><br />You see, this is half the problem with education here in Wales. We think just turning up is enough, turn up at school, turn up at exams. Heaven forbid ever having to work something out, heaven forbid having to proffer an answer and heaven forbid anyone daring to suggest that the answer is wrong, wrong even by a tiny amount!<br /><br />God help Wales!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-79373557427551878042013-12-03T20:22:23.093+00:002013-12-03T20:22:23.093+00:00Thanks, 19:58. However I had already provided tha...Thanks, 19:58. However I had already provided that link. That's where the questions came from.<br /><br />-<br /><br />Are you really saying that you need me to provide the answers, 20:11?MHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09329059309196746446noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-29781625169812815512013-12-03T20:11:40.504+00:002013-12-03T20:11:40.504+00:00So what are the answers ........ or are you just k...So what are the answers ........ or are you just keeping them to yourself like all the kids in Wales do? Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-985080357558043054.post-79392206576481420112013-12-03T19:58:52.103+00:002013-12-03T19:58:52.103+00:00You can take a sample of the questions here, OECD&...You can take a sample of the questions here, OECD's website: http://www.oecd.org/pisa/test They really are very easy.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com