Let’s assess our assessment

Sarah Boyd

Stage 5 Maths Teacher

XYZ College

• Current Stage 5 assessment

• How Can we improve?

• Current Academic Research

• Board of Studies Recommendations

• National Numeracy Review Recommendations (2008)

• Practical Tips

• Assessment Examples

• Resources

Overview

• End of topic tests

• Half-Yearly Exams

• End of Yearly exams

• Focus on student ranking against other students

• = Assessment of Learning or Summative Assessment

• = Only assessing after the fact!

Current Stage 5 assessment

• Use Assessment for Learning – assess as we go

• Assessment for learning is assessing for the purpose of promoting students’ learning as opposed to testing student’s learning

• Supported strongly by current academic research

• Recommended by Board of Studies and the recent National Numeracy Review 2008

How Can we improve?

• Recommended by National Council of Teachers of Mathematics USA in a 2007 Research Brief entitled “What does Research say the Benefits of Formative Assessment Are?”

• “produces greater increase in students’ achievement than class-size reduction or increases in teachers’ content knowledge and at a fraction of the cost (Wiliam and Thompson 2007)

Wiliam, D. and Thompson M., (2007) “Integrating Assessment with Instruction: What will it take to make it work?” In The Future of Assessment: Shaping Teaching and Learning, edited by Carol A. Dwyer,, Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Current Academic Research

• Recommend ‘Assessment for Learning’:• Provide feedback that helps students

understand the next steps in learning and plan how to achieve them

– Encourage deeper learning– Helps students learn better rather than just

achieve a better mark– Reflects a belief that all students can improve– Involve students in self-assessment and peer

learning

Board of Studies

• Reiterates importance of Wiliam and Thompson (2007) research findings

• Recommendations 4, 5, 7 effectively recommend better resourcing of Assessment for Learning in the classroom.

Australian National Numeracy Review 2008

• Only short cycle (within and between lessons) and medium cycle (1 to 4 weeks) improve student achievements (Wiliam and Thompson 2007)

• Teachers, students and peers all play a role

• Assessing minute by minute and day by day

• Key Points:– Where are learners in their learning?– Where are they going?– How are they going to get there?– Make the kids the teachers

Practical Tips

• You can only tell if students have met the learning outcomes if you test the common misconceptions surrounding the topic.

• Stacey et al. (2009) from the University of Melbourne focus on a misconception in number operations that "multiplication makes bigger division makes smaller" MMBDMS. This is when students wrongly think that multiplying by decimals less than 1 makes the number bigger.

• To assess this topic (among others) they devise a series of computer quizzes that provide several multiple choice answers with the common misconceptions as answer options.

• The computerised results allow the teacher to accurately assess which students are not understanding the topic deeply.

 

Stacey et al. (2009) SMART Assessment for Learning ISDDE conference 2009.

Assesment for Learning Examples: Addressing Common Misconceptions

• Students expect problems to only have one answer

• By challenging these expectations we provide an opportunity to provoke discussion and disagreement among pupils

• When asked what fraction the diagram represents, students may say 4/10 or 2/5. Instead, ask them what fractions could be represented by the diagram and they will be provoked into exploring their understanding further.

• This example was taken from Hodgen and Wiliam (2006)Hodgen J., and Wiliam D. (2006), Mathematics Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Mathematics Classroom. London. NFER-Nelson.

Assessment for Learning Examples:Problems with more (or less) than one correct answer

• Board of Studies (2002) Years 7 – 10 Mathematics Syllabus, Advice on Programming and Assessment.

• National Numeracy Review Report (2008), Human Capital Working Group, Council of Australian Governments

• Wiliam, D. and Thompson M., (2007) “Integrating Assessment with Instruction: What will it take to make it work?” In The Future of Assessment: Shaping Teaching and Learning, edited by Carol A. Dwyer,, Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

• Stacey et al. (2009) SMART Assessment for Learning ISDDE conference 2009.

• Downton A. et al. (2006) Mathematics Assessment for Learning Rich Tasks and Work Samples. ACU and CEO Melbourne Australia.

• Hodgen J., and Wiliam D. (2006), Mathematics Inside the Black Box: Assessment for Learning in the Mathematics Classroom. London. NFER-Nelson.

• NCTM Assessment Research Brief (2007) “What does Research say the Benefits of Formative Assessment Are?””

• NCTM Assessment Research Brief (2007) “Five Key Strategies for Effective Formative Assessment”

Resources

• Lets incorporate Assessment for learning in our Stage 5 classrooms!

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