¶ … Group Activities as Formative Assessment in Mathematics Classroom
The modern educational system is characterized by an increase demand for accountability and high-stakes testing. The demand for such accountability and testing is demonstrated in the quest for the use of summative assessments that provide a summary of the learning progress of students. Generally, the push for increased accountability and high-stakes testing has contributed to the use of different kinds of assessments that are administered at the state, district, school, and national levels. The use of these various kinds of assessments is not only geared towards realization of increased accountability but also act as a means for comparing and ranking students and schools. An example of the type of assessments that can be used in this process is formative assessments for various topics such as mathematics. Formative assessments are defined as systematic procedures of collecting evidence regarding students' learning to inform teaching practices and help students progress towards the achievement of a learning goal. There are various kinds of activities used in formative assessments including group activities.
Overview of Formative Assessments
As previously mentioned, formative assessments can be described as systematic processes of collection of evidence regarding students' learning (Nunn, 2011). The information derived from the formative assessments is used to inform teaching practices and act as a guideline for ensuring students' progress towards the achievement of a specific learning objective. Formative assessments are usually very crucial in situations where the student learning is objective of education. This is primarily because the teaching process and these kinds of assessments are inseparable and cannot take place without the other.
Formative assessments are regarded as feasible and effective procedures to enhance learning in every grade level. As a result, this type of assessment has received considerable attention from school administrators and teachers in the past few years. The increased attention on formative assessments is also fueled by the fact that these assessments are criterion or subject referenced and pupil referenced (Hall & Burke, 2004, p.78). This implies that the variables of formative assessments are the effort the pupil puts into the work, context and content of learning, and student's progress over time towards achieving a learning goal. In this case, the conceptual ability of the student and relevant criteria influence judgment regarding the work and response given to the student.
Formative assessments act as important tools in enhancing the learning process and students' performance since they are diagnostic tools for every student and important elements in teaching. Through these assessments, the student identifies small ideas as they are generated in a particular activity whereas teachers identify bigger ideas towards enhancing student's progress and performance in learning. Moreover, formative assessments play a crucial part in the summative process because they are administered by the teacher. Students are usually encouraged to be involved in formative assessments because it helps them recognize their personal strengths and weaknesses in order to make significant and valuable progress. The valuable progress emanates from the fact that formative assessments are developed with regards to where the students are in their learning i.e. The specific skills and content.
The effective implementation of formative assessments necessitates teachers to re-conceptualize their roles as teachers, students' roles, and interactions between teachers and students. There are various strategies used to implement formative assessments effectively including determining, sharing, and understanding learning goals and objectives for success, developing effective classroom discussions and activities, and providing feedback that promotes progress in learning. The other strategies used in this process include enabling students to own the learning process and creating an environment where students act as learning resources for each other. In essence, teachers tend to be more productive in implementing formative assessments through focusing on a single area or topic of change at a given time (McGatha, Bush & Rakes, 2009, p.33).
Assessment of Mathematics
In the United States, the current public education system is largely based on the use of standardized testing as a crucial component for evaluating students' learning and academic progress. Currently, students' learning and knowledge is assessed on an annual basis through the use of open-response or multiple-choice testing methodology, which are also used as the basis for evaluating the efficacy of teachers based on the results of the tests. While teachers in the classroom have the liberty to choose the kinds of assessments to use, mathematics teachers tend to use multiple-choice tests as compared to other forms of assessments. Multiple-choice tests have largely been used as part of standardized testing methods for assessing students' knowledge of mathematics....
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