The Role of Assessment in Teaching and Learning Mathematics - Essay Example

THE ROLE OF ASSESSMENT IN TEACHING AND LEARNING MATHEMATICS By Location Assessment in Mathematics In learning, assessment is a form of associated feedback that is essential in gauging the learning progress of students and also helps in engaging the same in developing interest in learning. Assessment as a tool in learning helps students to evaluate themselves in which they can be able to make decisions on how to improve their performance (O’Grady et al 2012, p. 228). Ideally, assessment can also be an effective tool for supporting the learning of mathematics, especially if conducted within high quality standards. According to research, every child in the universe understands the progress that they have to make in learning and they can only improve on their learning capabilities if they receive the support that they need in this process (DCSF 2008, p. 3). Ideally, many students consider mathematics to be one of the hardest subjects within a learning curriculum hence influencing the need for motivating students to improve on this perceived weak subject. The assessment process, especially on mathematics can be on a daily, transitional or on a periodic basis in which the findings of the assessment may be shared between the students, parents and the teachers (CERI 2008, p. 1). With this, this essay will delve into the roles in which assessment plays in the teaching and learning of mathematics through the formative and summative assessment strategies. Further, the focus of the essay will also be on exploring the relationship between teaching practice, policies and theories while applying views of the various stakeholders in the learning process. Formative and summative assessment Ideally, formative assessment tends to be a variety of assessment tools in which teachers apply within the learning process as a way of improving the results of the students in teachers may have to making changes to their teaching curricula. The most principle aspects in this assessment form is that it makes use of feedback rather than the scores of the students whose main objective is focusing on the course contents and improved performance of the students (Sammons 2009, p. 110). On the other hand, summative assessment refers to the assessment tool in which learners have to sit for tests after a period of time in which the teacher marks the test and gives scores as per the performance of the learners (Kennedy, Tipps & Johnson 2008, p. 105). The basic component in this is that summative assessment tends to summarize the learnt aspects up to the point of testing and does not influence the improvement of the performance of the students. Differences between the two assessment tools `Learning tends to draw influence from dialogue in which the behavioral communication that a learner may exhibit may influence interpretation by teachers and other learners that is essential in making the steps that follow within the learning process. Mostly, this tends to be the formative aspect because this tends to be part of the learning process while the summative is only applicable at the end of a learning period (Diamond 2009, p. 9). In addition, formative assessment stimulates dialogue and connection in which there can be a spontaneous occurrence of events that are helpful in the learning process while in summative there is only the use of questions set (Southworth 2003, p. 111). Formative assessment seeks to cultivate on the knowledge that a learner might have acquired while summative only seeks to assess the knowledge acquired. Other than this, summative assessment tends to be a one-sided affair in which in which a teacher only assess the students and passes judgement on their performance while in formative, is a continuous process in which response can either be from the teacher or from the learner. In this regard, assessment in learning mathematics should aim at developing questions that are likely to influence learners and teachers to contribute in class in which a teacher can be able to know the strengths and the challenges have when trying to comprehend what is taught to them. The implication of this is that a learning environment for mathematics should not be rigid meaning that a teacher should be able to adapt to a flow, especially if the lesson takes a direction that is likely to influence the students to understand more. The main objective of a learning process is to ensure that teachers and students achieve their learning goals while factoring in the challenges and strengths of the learners, meaning the process should not be rushed (Diamond 2009, p. 10). The implication of this is that teachers should use formative assessment in teaching mathematics as this is likely to influence learners to participate in learning because of the two-way feedback provided in the assessment tool (Mink 2007, p. 17). Additionally, formative assessment is the best tool for assessing student progress because it helps in designing a teaching plan that would aide learners in understanding this subject with ease. Lastly, assessment for learning of formative assessment provides an effective learning plan to stakeholders because emphasis tends to be on the learning process of the students rather than gauging the level of knowledge attained, which can also be a motivation tool to learning. Teaching practice, theories and policies surrounding assessment in teaching and learning mathematics Decision making plays an important role in learning as a teacher has to make decision before, during and after a lesson, which also applies to children. The decision making aspect tends to raise the stakes of learning or may not attract significant consequences, but every decision influences different learning outcomes to the learners. However, it is imperative that teachers apply the policies and principles relevant to the learning and assessment process appropriately so as to make sure that the learners learn well. One of the key principles in assessment is that this process should solely benefit learners through direct services or by improving the quality of learning and also helps in the feedback gathering process. Further, an assessment tool should be specific in terms of purpose, meaning that it may not be valid when attempting to evaluate the learners and should also be applicable to that purpose and not to any other. The designing of an appropriate assessment policy requires that the assessment tools change with the age of the learners, meaning that it should be able to retrieve information at the various ages of a learner’s life. Language is also a key component in the assessment in which a teacher should develop an assessment tool that can appropriate to learners that are of different nationality in order to make the process fair to all learners. At the policy level, the government should make it mandatory for schools to use class-based formative tools because many teachers tend to shy away from this tool because of the requirements that it demands. The implication of this is that governments can hold instructors responsible for The main objective behind conducting assessment should be the fact that teachers are able to bridge the gaps and deficits that learners may experience that tends to bring down their performance in mathematics. With this, intervention programmers are key in ensuring that learners improve their performances in class by improving on the knowledge and skill acquired especially for those in their early stages of life (Ofsted 2012, p. 8). As a principle, teachers should allow their learners to communicate their ideas freely within a classroom, which helps in the stimulation of a mathematical language that is essential in understanding key mathematical concepts. Parents are also key stakeholders in the assessment process as the reports gathered during the evaluation should get to them as this helps in getting them involved in the process of improving the learning levels of their children. In addition, parents should be involved in assessing the learning of their children because they play an active role in helping learners to their school work with their home experiences. Children with special needs also need assessing meaning that teachers should be able to develop assessment tools that favor each child’s learning ability because the level of understanding differs among learners. Purposes of assessment in learning mathematics and assessment approaches Principally, assessment in learning mathematics should not be for the sole purpose of grading or positioning students per their performances, but they should complement learning activities within a classroom setting. Assessment tools should also influence learners to focus on developing their knowledge and supporting their diversity in learning, which tends to make a classroom livelier and makes the learning experience worthwhile. With this, the basic purpose for conducting assessment should be for improving the learner’s knowledge acquisition levels and also help the teacher to establish how much of the topic covered has been understood by the learners (Killen 2005, p. 98). Assessment also allows a teacher to know whether it is time to move on to the next topic meaning that the feedback drawn reflects the level of understanding of the students (Cooke, Irby & O’Brien 2010). The form of assessment applicable here is the summative type because it helps an instructor to gauge the understanding of students on a concluded topic. Other than this, an instructor is able to know the areas of strength of the students and also their perceived weaknesses in which they are able to design learning tools that will be helpful to the learners as per the national criteria (DCSF 2008, p.7). The other purpose associated with assessing learning of mathematics is that it helps an instructor to plan for desired outcomes in which learners can be able to cover greater milestones in one stride. With this, the use of formative assessment tools helps a teacher to make use of the data obtained from the learners to make decisions on a professional level pertaining to learning. For the students, they are able to make improvements on areas that they have realized that they have weakness in through self-assessment as they acquire the option of preparing for their examinations by themselves. This makes learning to be easier because learners show the initiative of engaging with teachers and other students in order for them to improve on their grades in mathematics. Ideally, the process of drawing feedback from both students and teachers should be one that allows for the presentation of ideas without having any reservations because all these stakeholders are able to engage freely. In addition, self-assessment by learners helps them to become self-managers in that they are able to develop new skills such those of self-reflection in which learners experience the opportunity to develop personal capacities (Assessment Reform Group 2002, p. 2). Problems and tensions that assessments generate Principally, the aspect of assessment requires that teachers or instructors report to other parties outside their classrooms that may include school heads, parents or the government, which tends to be the financier of these institutions. The implication of this is that tension may not only be within a classroom, but it may also spread to outside the learning facility. However, the summative form of assessment is one of the principle areas that may attract conflict because a teacher has to act as both the judge and the one that is supposed to implement the improvement process. In many case, parents may feel as though an instructor may be short-changing their children because of the fact that the grading aspects tends to leave at the bottom of the class. On the other hand, formative and summative assessment also tend to influence conflict as many teachers do not prefer applying the latter because of the many requirements involved in this process (Orlich et al 2013, p. 188). With this the tensions can be resolved if the government makes it mandatory for teachers involved in teaching mathematics to use formative assessment in order to help improve the performance of their learners because it is moiré likely to yield results that any other form of assessment. Examining assessment on a wide ranging term Using mini white boards According to research the use of mini white boards has been proven to be an effective way of engaging students in learning mathematics as it is an improved form of chalks boards that were common during the colonial times. In order for the use of white boards to be effective, it is recommended that each student has his/her own white board because they are easy to make and can motivate students to be participative in learning mathematics. Further, mini white boards are portable and inexpensive to acquire while they are also a form of formative assessment tools because they tend to give instructors feedback about the learning progress of the students. The use of mini white boards in assessment of teaching and learning mathematics can help an instructor to make adjustments to their teaching plans in order for the learning process to be of benefit to the learners. It is also a tool that engages an entire classroom as it allows students to demonstrate what they have learnt on the mini white-boards while also influencing memory capabilities of the learners (Lee 2006, p. 29). The other advantage of using mini white boards is that it helps teachers and learners to adjust as per the level of understanding portrayed because the feedback is immediate. AfL, standardized examinations such GSCE For many years, summative assessment has been the most dominant tool for assessing the learning capabilities of students while learning mathematics. However, the needs have risen in which teachers have had to evaluate their students on a national level as per the national standards meaning that there is need for teachers to receive feedback in order for them to make changes to suit the national criteria of evaluation (CERI 2008, p. 3). One of these standardized examinations is the GSCE (General Certificate of Secondary Education) introduced in 1986 that seeks to assess learners of between age 14 and 16 in England that replaced the O Level system of evaluation (Rushton & Cook 2010, p. 14). It is a mandatory requirement for students that have interest in pursuing A Level courses, which is a compulsory requirement. However, this need has also influenced changes in relation to the assessment criteria as many have realized that formative assessment is the only sure way of influencing improvement in teaching and learning practice. With this, the introduction of AfL (Assessment for learning) has sought to create a balance between summative and formative assessment, which for a long time have influenced tensions between them (ARG 2003, p. 3). The idea behind AFL is that it helps teachers and learners to plan for the next stages of the learning process meaning that it is more focused on achieving the overall goals rather than present objectives. In the UK, this has become the most acceptable practice in that instructors have applied the concept of daily information gathering and for them to use the data acquired to improve the learning of their students. Ideally, the application of assessment for learning worldwide draws influence from the research conducted by Black Paul and Williams Dylan in 1998, which focused on reviewing journals that presented research on how to improve on learning. The research findings were that the most basic requirement for the success of AFL was that the assessment tool had to be implemented effectively on all students despite the differing levels of understanding. The other requirement was that quality was a must in that it influenced them to be empowered and responsible for their learning through them being engaged through self-assessment. A constant factor is that assessment is a basic principle in teaching practice as it helps teachers to evaluate whether the learners understand the topics that the instructors are teaching in class. Formative assessment is the most applicable assessment tool because it tends to be a constructive and motivational learning process because it allows learners to ask open-ended questions that can be helpful in understanding mathematics topics. Another key aspect of AFL is that it serves as a self-motivator, which in turn can influence the understanding levels of a student rather than focusing on the summative assessment as a form of gauging successful performance. Verbal and written feedback Ideally, oral and written feedback in assessing learning are different in that the former gives more options and questions that can be able to draw excellent feedback because it can present unique issues during the information retrieval process. According to Boistrup, the incredible thing about oral feedback is that an instructor tends to speak to each student individually and is able to make conclusions based on the face to face interaction that they share. However, the contents for these forms of assessment tend to be the same, but written feedback tends to be more rigid than oral feedback because it may take any direction depending on the answers given by the learners. In the oral feedback, a teacher may decide to use probing questions as a way of provoking more feedback from the learners as this tends to stimulate areas that can be of help in the assessment process (Keeley 2008, p. 46). Another applicable and technology centred form of assessment tool can be the online assessment option such as mymath in which the basics of evaluation of this evaluation tool are similar to the traditional evaluation criteria of marking (Hricko & Howell 2006, p. 47). However, the difference is that this tool requires that an instructor develops an instructional design in order for this self-evaluation process to be successful. Rubrics here are essential in that students are able to answer questions as per the requirements given by the instructor on the instructions sheet and are able to document their own strengths and competencies. By using this tool, instructors are able to complement their traditional teaching practice because online assessment tools are able to influence assessment test effectiveness. Bibliography CERI (Centre for Educational Research and Innovation), Assessment for learning: Formative assessment, OECD Conference, Available from: www.google.de/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CDAQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oecd.org%2Fdataoecd%2F19%2F31%2F40600533.pdf&ei=8ztGU9-1O4XvOfndgIgO&usg=AFQjCNGk69yXYfCZVL1jeNSxhndHbslmmw&bvm=bv.64507335,d.ZWU [10 April 2014] Assessment Reform Group 2002, Assessment for Learning: 10 Principles Research-based principles to guide classroom practice. 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