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Constructing difference: assessment in mathematics education

Wiliam, Dylan; (2003) Constructing difference: assessment in mathematics education. In: Burton, Leone, (ed.) Which way social justice in mathematics education? (pp. 189-207). Praeger: Bloomsbury Publishing. Green open access

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Abstract

Since the pioneering work of Maccoby and Jacklin (1974), there has been a great deal of research on sex differences in mathematics. Most of this research has treated these differences as substantial, as more or less real and in some way inherent, innate, or even inherited and has either focused on measuring the size of the difference, or on exploring possible causes such as differences in brain physiology, child-rearing practices, or biases in processes of schooling. This chapter will challenge the prevailing view. In the first section, I will show that differences between males and females are in fact extremely small—of an order that most statisticians would regard as negligible— and in the second section argue that these differences are not in any sense ‘natural’ but rather are constructed through the social processes that have shaped what we choose to call mathematics. Since the results of assessments in mathematics have profound consequences for the lives of students, adopting a particular definition of mathematics is therefore a moral, as much as an epistemological enterprise, which is discussed in the third section, and this is examined through the key concept of validity in the fourth section. In the final section, I develop a principle for the use of assessments in selection, based on the idea that if we cannot make selections fairly, we should make them at random.

Type: Book chapter
Title: Constructing difference: assessment in mathematics education
ISBN: 1-56750-680-1
ISBN-13: 9781567506808
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Publisher version: https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/which-way-social-jus...
Additional information: This version is the author-accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1507193
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