Assessment in mathemathics teacher education

Authentic tasks can promote higher-order learning. In the student task discussed in this paper the student teachers developed, tried, graded, discussed and revised mathematics test questions, in connection to an amusement park visit. The task was designed in an effort to bring the teacher educators in the mathematics and educational departments and those in the schools closer to each other through participation in a joint project, which was part of the "VFU" - the time that student teachers spend in school as part of the subject studies. The task involved different aspects of authenticity, both in the mathematics questions created in and in the creation of questions.Qualities in students' problems are discussed, and also student reflections on pupil and teacher reactions in relation to the authentic contexts. Traditional textbook problems were found to have a strong influence, as evidenced by many of the student-created problems and some of the supervisor reactions. Students' descriptions of teacher comments indicated that these focused more on classroom management than on mathematics content, consistent with traditional expectations on the VFU.