Re: Conceptual Tests

[Rick Tarara <rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU>]

If this is the best example anyone can come up with........

I never heard it called a median either (growing up in St. Louis), but the
first time I was somewhere driving and saw a sign 'Don't cross the Median',
I had no trouble understanding what was meant.  The question is (as I think
Joel said) as much a vocabulary and logic question as a straight forward
recognition question.  The Army Intelligence Test (oxymoron?) had tool
recognition questions--pictures of tools and match the ones that went
together.  Certainly not something of which city-bred, college-prep kids
were likely to be 'culturally aware', but nobody screamed cultural
discrimination (back in the late 60s).

BC's example in an earlier post about the situation in California schools
only proves my point about the chaos created by trying to teach in dozens of
languages--and the inherent injustice done to those who don't have the
numbers to warrant such special treatment--Albanian Dwarfs UNITE!

:-)

Rick




----- Original Message -----
From: "Bernard Cleyet" <anngeorg@PACBELL.NET>
To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: Conceptual Tests


> Zeke knows of what the minorities speak when they complain of cultural
specific
> tests e.g. sat.
>
> bc
>
>
> Kossom wrote:
>
> > Howdy-
> >
> > You may find this petty and silly, but I hate sled questions. I hate ice
> > skater questions. I live in New Orleans.
> >
> > I have never ridden on a sled. I have never lived in a place that has
had an
> > accumulation of snow in the last couple of decades. I've been ice
skating
> > twice.
> >
> > Where are the driving on wet roads questions? I know something about
that! I
> > discovered recently that it is pretty different than driving on ice.
Eek.
> > I remember missing an SAT analogy back when I was a kid. The pair was
> > MEDIAN:STREET. I had no idea what a median was, we don't call them
medians
> > here.
> >
> > Marc "Zeke" Kossover
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rick Tarara [mailto:rtarara@SAINTMARYS.EDU]
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 1:00 PM
> > To: PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu
> > Subject: Re: Conceptual Tests
> >
> > I'm sitting here looking at a copy of the F&MCE and I really can't
identify
> > any cultural specific question.  We've got a sled (picture shown) being
> > pushed around, a car on a ramp, a car going through some basic motions,
> > collisions between cars and trucks (pictures shown).  I won't let you
argue
> > that the sled and ice are culturally discriminatory--Tina IS in Iowa
(not to
> > mention exposure to things like the Olympics).  So, I don't see the
> > 'cultural' problem.  Language yes, but there is where allowing extra
time
> > and the use of a dictionary can work.  I've done it for students here
and
> > they've done fine.  Sure there is an occasional question, word, or
phrase
> > that is misunderstood, but I have that with my native-English speaking
> > students as well.
> >
> > Rick
> >
> > **********************************************
> > Richard W. Tarara
> > Professor of Physics
> > Saint Mary's College
> > Notre Dame, IN 46556
> > rtarara@saintmarys.edu
> >
> > FREE PHYSICS INSTRUCTIONAL SOFTWARE
> > www.saintmarys.edu/~rtarara/software.html
> > PC and MAC software
> > NEW! SIMLAB2001--DYNAMIC CARTS now available.
> > CD-ROMs now available
> > ******************************************************
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Brian Whatcott" <inet@INTELLISYS.NET>
> > To: <PHYS-L@lists.nau.edu>
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2002 1:39 PM
> > Subject: Re: Conceptual Tests
> >
> > > As a cautionary response to this very natural nonPC outburst,
> > > I should mention that after spending a long time in England, I was
taking
> > > an academic test written for Americans, and I was stalled by a culture
> > > specific reference, many years ago.
> > > [A detail of a baseball diamond? Insight into 'bottom of the ninth'? -
I
> > > can't recall]
> > >
> > > At the time, I had the no doubt arrogant misconception that my English
> > > vocabulary and comprehension level was equal to a task of this kind.
> > > I needed to skip that question, all the same.   Rick would know it if
he
> > > ran across such a block. That is Tina's difficulty!
> > >
> > > Brian W