Assessment of Modelling in Mathematics Examination Papers: Ready-Made Models and Reproductive Mathematising

Abstract

In the Netherlands modelling is integrated into the mathematics curriculum. This chapter describes a study of modelling characteristics in recent mathematics examination papers. Results show that the tasks convey the message that mathematics can be found in unexpected situations. In many tasks a situation and a ready-made model are given and students are asked to work with the model. For mathematising, two design principles were: to finalise the parameters of a given model, and to reconstruct a given mathematical model from verbal descriptions and diagrams of a situation. These formats were coined as mechanistic and reproductive mathematising respectively. These formats have been introduced to cater for test reliability at the expense of test validity.