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'this work is highly relevant to the proliferation of accountability measures worldwide'
James Scheurich and Douglas Foley
In many countries, the lives of teachers and children are increasingly dominated by programmes of national testing of mathematics and other subjects. In England, the majority of the items in such tests have set mathematical tasks in every day situations such as 'shopping'. This requires children to make decisions about whether to use or not their own every day knowledge and experience in their problem-solving. Some children are likely to have a better 'feel for this game' than others. Assessing Children's Mathematical Knowledge draws on the analysis of national curriculum test data from more than 600 children of 10-11 and 13-14 years of age, as well as in-depth interviews with 250 of these as they attempt to solve test problems, in order to explore the nature of the difficulties children experience with 'realistic' items. The book shows, by comparing test and interview data, that many children, as a consequence of their confusion over the requirements of 'realistic' test items, fail in tests to demonstrate mathematical knowledge and understanding that they actually possess. The book also explores whether this problem of invalid measurement is equally spread across children from different social backgrounds, and across the sexes.
The book will be of interest to academics and teachers studying for advanced degrees in mathematics education, sociology of education and educational assessment.
List of contents
Introduction
The research
origins, methods, issues
Children and 'realistic' test items
previous studies and National Curriculum test items
Key Stage two 'realistic' items
two children, two cultural competences?
Social class, sex, contextualization and performance
a quantitative analysis at Key Stage 2
'Realistic' items, social class and sex
two examples from Key Stage 2
Social class, sex, selection for tiers and performance
a quantitative analysis at Key Stage 3
Children's answers to items and explicitness
examples from Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 3
Constructing the right goal
a comparative analysis of two Key Stage 3 items
References
Conclusion
Index.
About the author
Barry Cooper is a Professor of Education, and Director of Research, at the University of Durham, School of Education. His research interests include the sociological study of the school curriculum and assessment, mathematics education, and Indian primary education. He has recently directed two ESRC projects studying assessment in mathematics.
Mairead Dunne is a Lecturer in Education at the University of Sussex Institute of Education. Her research interests include mathematics education, equity in education, and educational development in South Africa. After she obtained her PhD in 1994, she worked as a Research Fellow on two ESRC projects studying assessment in mathematics.
Summary
In England, the majority of the items in national testing of mathematics and other subjects have set mathematical tasks in every day situations such as 'shopping'. This book draws on the analysis of national curriculum test data in order to explore the nature of the difficulties children experience with 'realistic' items.
