Teachers’ perceptions of assessments of their math

Authors: Michelle T Chamberlin Jeff D Farmer Jodie D Novak

Publish Date: 2008/10/14

Volume: 11, Issue: 6, Pages: 435-457

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Abstract

The purpose of the project reported in this article was to evaluate how assessing teachers’ mathematical knowledge within a professional development course impacted from the teachers’ perspective their learning and their experience with the course The professional development course consisted of a 2week summer institute and the content focus was geometry We had decided to assess the mathematical learning of the teachers during this professional development course for various accountability reasons but were concerned about possible negative byproducts of this decision on the teachers and their participation Thus we worked to design assessment in ways that we hoped would minimize negative impacts and maintain a supportive learning environment In addition we undertook this evaluation to examine the impacts of the assessment which included homework quizzes various projects and an examination for program evaluation Seventeen grade 5–9 teachers enrolled in the course participated in the study by completing written reflections and by describing their experiences in interviews We learned that while our original intent was “to do no harm” the teachers reported that their learning was enhanced by the assessment The article concludes by describing the various properties of the assessments that the teachers identified as contributing to their learning of the geometry content many of which align with current recommendations for assessing and evaluating grade K16 mathematics studentsThe authors would like to thank Dr Andrew Neumann for assisting in data collection and early analysis and Dr Robert Powers for reading earlier drafts of this article and providing feedback In addition we want to thank the reviewers of the article and Dina Tirosh Their comments greatly assisted with making the article more streamlined and with highlighting the important results from the project The professional development studied here was supported by the High Plains Mathematics and Science Partnership Project funded by the Colorado Department of Education and by the Mathematics and Science Teaching Institute at the University of Northern Colorado Research activity was also supported by the Center for Learning and Teaching in the West an NSFfunded initiative

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