CP 91-3 Assessing assessment: Investigating a mathematics performance assessment.
Abstract
The author of this paper describes how he tried several different strategies to enhance his students' understanding of the mathematics he was teaching. He asked his students to work in cooperative learning groups, to give presentations of problems they had solved, and to write about solutions they had found. With all these changes in teaching strategies he began to question if traditional methods of assessing his students were sufficient for testing the type of understanding he was striving for in his students. In this paper the author discusses how in answer to this question he developed a performance assessment as a final exam for his high school Algebra II class. The author explains how he organized the exam, how the students prepared for the exam, and then the results of the exam. He explains how some students surprised him as they performed very well and were able to explain in detail the concepts they were dealing with. Given a chance or when questions were rephrased, students were able to do very well explaining a problem in contrast to drawing a blank on a traditional test and being doomed to a poor grade. Others did not do as well as expected. Even though they had done well in class and had a good understanding of the mathematics he had taught, they were unable to explain the concepts. Instead they relied on memorized facts and simple computation. The author includes some comments judges made about the students and some of the reactions of the students to this type of final exam. The results of this assessments have direct consequences for the author's teaching. The author concludes by discussing the consequences of this assessment, how he will use what he learned from this assessment to improve his students' understanding, and questions that were either unanswered or created by this assessment.