tdubthebassist

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Artus, on Mar 12, 2010 - 03:17, said:

I realize that this is too late for this particular student, but I wanted to still post a response.  I teach IB Math SL and am familiar with the "rules" regarding what teachers are and aren't allowed to do to aid a student in performing a portfolio task.  Unfortunately, not all Math SL teachers are as familiar with the IB guidelines as we would like them to be, and also the guidelines themselves aren't always crystal clear.  In fact opinions on how to interpret them often vary.  Thus, help from math teachers will often vary in quantity and quality depending on your particular teacher's interpretation and level of familiarity and adherence to these guidelines.  Some teachers will hand out an IA task sheet at the end of a unit, ask for the project 10 days later, and do nothing more to assist.  Others will spend multiple classes introducing the IAs, run through practice IAs, help interpret an IA, proof or comment on a first draft, and also allow extra time.  Some of the policy may be department or schoolwide and not even a decision made independently by your teacher.  Also keep in mind the guidelines are not necessarily the same for Math IAs as they are for other subjects, and they also differ from the EE.


That being said, here it is:
The student is not allowed "direct" help with an internal assessment.  This means from a teacher, internet, etc.  That's why IAs are rare to download.  Even if you were just to peruse another student's IA and put it into your own words, reperforming all the math and "making it your own" - in essence improving upon the previous student, this would constitute "direct" help with your specific IA.  It directly addresses the same task that you are to perform, and provides guidance on one way to approach it.  This is "direct" help.  However, if your IA had to do with modelling, and your teacher were to teach a lesson on how to create a model sine function from an arbitrary set of data, that would be considered "indirect" help as long as the data was different and not in reference to the IA.  So, your teacher can help indirectly by showing you how to do some things that may also be of assistance while doing an IA, but she/he must be able to justify to themselves that this act was not "direct" help.  I know... it can be a fine line and even a slippery slope.  No puns intended.  

So, in Artus' particular case, because the teacher was helping specifically with Artus' response to the task, it could easily be construed as "direct" help.  

And no, a teacher is not allowed 1 feedback.  How would this 1 even be measured?  1 sentence?  1 paragraph or 1 book's worth of feedback?  1 time? If so, how much time? 10 minutes?  1 hour's worth of feedback?  Could this 1 feedback be interactive like a Q&A?  My point is that I have never read anything from IB saying that we are allowed to provide 1 feedback, as much I wish I had.  I've only read things pointing to the contrary.  And the statement that we are allowed 1 seems to be full of holes and new questions that I quickly grow suspicious of the source as the victim of wishful thinking.

The excerpt quoted above from the 2008 first exams courseguide is a direct quote from IB, but the timing is being misunderstood.  This feedback and followup is meant for after the IA is complete.  Teachers are to feedback and followup AFTER the IA, not during.  It is meant to help students learn if they made mistakes during the IA so that
1) they don't make the same ones next time
2) they have a better overall understanding of how creative problem solving can be used to accomplish the task
3) they become better at communicating mathematics.  

Wouldn't IAs seem pointless if the teacher didn't help you understand afterwards?  If your teacher showed you "alternative
strategies for developing (your) mathematical thinking and (you) are provided with guidance for improving
(your) skills in writing mathematics," it wouldn't be much an assessment would it?