This isn’t testing reasonableness. This is testing to see if a student understands that to properly compare fractions the wholes have to start as equivalent.
Source: I use questions similar to this every year because if I don’t get some real funky diagrams.
But… you can totally compare fractions without the whole being equivalent. You just have to know the size of the wholes. It’s just a poorly phrased question that has more than one correct answer when only one was intended.
Edit: also, it’s totally testing reasonableness, that’s literally the title of the question. Still poorly phrased though.
The question literally says “how is this possible”.
If the answer you’re expecting is “it’s not possible”, that’s a terrible question. You shouldn’t be using trick questions on students trying to learn a new concept.
But as established before, the teacher is an idiot and wrong. I promise you that the teacher did not create that assessment herself. Shit, the font looks like it was put out by Envision/Savvas, a huge producer of math curricula in the US. The developers of that curriculum are expecting the students to not answer “it’s not possible”. They are expecting them to answer “one of the pizzas was larger”. I promise you if you look at the provided answers that is the expected answer. It’s not a trick question, it’s a question to get the students to think critically and figure out what would make the situation possible.
How in the holy fuck is everyone still focusing on “it’s a bad question” and not “this teacher is a fucking moron who doesn’t understand the curriculum they are supposed to be teaching”? Jesus, for years I’ve been listening to people bitch about critical thinking not being taught, and then they see this and immediately complain about a critical thinking question.
“If Y is true, what must we do to X to ensure Y is true?”
This isn’t testing reasonableness. This is testing to see if a student understands that to properly compare fractions the wholes have to start as equivalent.
Source: I use questions similar to this every year because if I don’t get some real funky diagrams.
But… you can totally compare fractions without the whole being equivalent. You just have to know the size of the wholes. It’s just a poorly phrased question that has more than one correct answer when only one was intended.
Edit: also, it’s totally testing reasonableness, that’s literally the title of the question. Still poorly phrased though.
The question literally says “how is this possible”.
If the answer you’re expecting is “it’s not possible”, that’s a terrible question. You shouldn’t be using trick questions on students trying to learn a new concept.
But as established before, the teacher is an idiot and wrong. I promise you that the teacher did not create that assessment herself. Shit, the font looks like it was put out by Envision/Savvas, a huge producer of math curricula in the US. The developers of that curriculum are expecting the students to not answer “it’s not possible”. They are expecting them to answer “one of the pizzas was larger”. I promise you if you look at the provided answers that is the expected answer. It’s not a trick question, it’s a question to get the students to think critically and figure out what would make the situation possible.
How in the holy fuck is everyone still focusing on “it’s a bad question” and not “this teacher is a fucking moron who doesn’t understand the curriculum they are supposed to be teaching”? Jesus, for years I’ve been listening to people bitch about critical thinking not being taught, and then they see this and immediately complain about a critical thinking question.
“If Y is true, what must we do to X to ensure Y is true?”