Considering Students' Style Characteristics in the Development of Adaptive Testing of Math Learning Outcomes

Abstract

The paper discusses development of adaptive tests in order to ensure optimal conditions for students to demonstrate their best learning outcomes in mathematics. To do this adaptive testing system requires considering individual features of students’ cognitive activity. The purpose of the study is to find out what features of students' cognitive activity affect the success of solving problems, i.e. which should be taken into account when developing adaptive tests in mathematics. And How? The study involved 105 students of the 8th grade. Variance analysis was applied to the received data. The findings showed 1) the expediency of taking into account the styles of students when developing a modern adaptive testing system through a certain form of presentation of mathematical tasks. Students with more pronounced intuitive, synthetic, and pragmatic styles proved to be more successful when selecting problem, represented in a graphical form matching their preferred style; students with a more pronounced analytical style were more successful in solving problem in symbolic form. Students with a more pronounced auditory style, who erroneously chose tasks that did not match their style, were equally less successful in solving them; 2) it is doubtful that students are aware of their style features, which requires further research.