Diagnostic assessment and problem solving in mathematics

![CDATA[Effective problem solving assessment for learning resides in the quality of the problem or task. Ideally the problem needs to challenge the student, involve important mathematical ideas from and enhance students’ learning. Preferable problem solving has studetns’ exploring unfamiliar problems and using a range of strategies that enhance their powers of analysis, reasoning, generalising and abstracting. Ideally students’ should experience the beauty of mathematics and its power to make sense of their world. Good problems create opportunities for assessment of quality of student thinking and learning, producing data that is necessary for further planning of classroom activates. Problems are usually written and Newman’s Error Analysis is a useful diagnostic procedure that links both problem solving and language concerns. Teachers have adapted it to act as an individual student problem solving strategy and as a pedagogical approach. This theoretical paper will highlight adaptations that contribute to problem solving and effective assessment for learning.]]