Authenticity in Learning, Teaching and Assessment.

Abstract: Middlesex University has a practice-based approach supporting students to develop the knowledge and skills they need for their professional careers. Taking this as our guiding principle while revalidating our maths programmes we decided to rethink our learning teaching and assessment strategies. This involved moving away from traditional mathematical teaching methodologies towards a more inclusive and authentic approach while maintaining the necessary rigour for a mathematics degree. To prepare students for their mathematical careers we embed a number of techniques that allow them to develop particular employability skills throughout their degree. These include the use of industry standard tools in class and a module dedicated to problem-solving and communication. We also distinguish between authentic assessment, that is submission formats that are closely aligned with work tasks, and authentic problems, which use real data, complicated real-life models or the kind of imprecise formulation that typifies real-world problems. In this talk I will discuss our rationale for this approach to learning and teaching, I will give examples of our assessment approach and how we mitigate against the barriers to equality of opportunity that this approach has made explicit.

Mathematics

Audience: researchers in the discipline

Comments: Contact: Kirsten Pfeiffer

Maths seminars at the University of Galway