Error is often treated in a paradoxical manner: it is always talked about but seldom analyzed; it is said to be useful and valuable, but counts negatively in evaluation; students are exhorted to find and point out their errors, but at the same time teachers hide their own. What we believe and intend to argue and support with examples in this paper is that errors are valuable allies that allow us to understand some elements regarding ways of thinking; these elements, however, remain hidden and thus cannot help us in the process of learning/teaching if we have (and transmit) the bad habit of erasing the errors. The other side of the coin is that error is instead of slight importance in terms of evaluation: in some cases there are no particular errors, but the context is such that the situation should still be evaluated negatively, and, vice versa, in other cases there may be a large number of errors, but the context is such that the situation still merits a positive evaluation.

Right or wrong? That is the 1uestion / M. Dedò, L. Sferch. - In: NOTICES OF THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. - ISSN 0002-9920. - 59:7(2012 Aug), pp. 924-932. [10.1090/noti863]

Right or wrong? That is the 1uestion

M. Dedò
Primo
;
2012

Abstract

Error is often treated in a paradoxical manner: it is always talked about but seldom analyzed; it is said to be useful and valuable, but counts negatively in evaluation; students are exhorted to find and point out their errors, but at the same time teachers hide their own. What we believe and intend to argue and support with examples in this paper is that errors are valuable allies that allow us to understand some elements regarding ways of thinking; these elements, however, remain hidden and thus cannot help us in the process of learning/teaching if we have (and transmit) the bad habit of erasing the errors. The other side of the coin is that error is instead of slight importance in terms of evaluation: in some cases there are no particular errors, but the context is such that the situation should still be evaluated negatively, and, vice versa, in other cases there may be a large number of errors, but the context is such that the situation still merits a positive evaluation.
error ; mathematics ; teaching ; learning
Settore MAT/04 - Matematiche Complementari
ago-2012
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/202734
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