UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY OF

SOUTHERN PHILIPPINES COLLEGE OF SCIENCE AND

TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION
C.M. Recto Avenue, Lapasan, Cagayan de Oro
City

Math 322: Assessment and Evaluation in Mathematics

Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Parcutilo

Group 5: ENHANCING SOUND ASSESSMENT KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES

Leader:
Balingcasag, Cristell Angelou
Members:
Mejos, Roilan
Miomio, Ethyl Mae
Monilar, Kaila Marie
Noval, Irich Roquea
Omreso, Diana
Saburnido, Yesa Jean
Tan, Abegail Marie

2.5 ENHANCING SOUND ASSESSMENT KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICES

Intended Learning Outcome:

1. Discuss the challenges teachers face in engaging in assessment practices that help to
provide a comprehensive picture of student thinking and learning;
2. Present examples of professional learning opportunities that helped to support teachers as
they enhance their assessment practices

Introduction
-Cristell Angelou Balingcasag

Assessing student learning is a fundamental aspect of the work of teaching. Using evidence of
student learning and making inferences from that evidence plays a role in every stage of the phases
of instruction. This section discusses the challenges teachers face in engaging in assessment
practices that help to provide a comprehensive picture of student thinking and learning. It also
presents examples of professional learning opportunities that have helped to support teachers as
they enhance their assessment practices.
 “What is Sound Assessment?
Sound assessment refers to a valid and reliable method of measuring the knowledge, skills,
abilities, or performance of individuals, programs, or systems. It involves using evidence-based
practices to design, implement, and interpret assessment tools, ensuring that the assessment is
accurate, fair, and relevant to the context in which it is being used.

A sound assessment tool should meet specific criteria, including:

Validity

Reliability

Fairness

Relevance

A sound assessment can be used for various purposes, such as evaluating student learning,
measuring the effectiveness of a program, informing decision-making, identifying areas for
improvement, or comparing performance across different contexts.

2.5.1 Assessment Challenge

(Reporters: Irich Roquea Noval & Kaila Marie Monilar)

● Assessing students’ learning is multifaceted. The process of making sense of students’

mathematical thinking, through student explanations, strategies, and mathematical
behaviors, is much more complex than might be anticipated and can often challenge
teachers’ ways of thinking about mathematics and mathematics teaching and learning
(Even 2005; Watson 2006).

● Several researchers have suggested there is variability in the extent to which teachers have
implemented innovative assessment practices, often based on teachers’ conceptions of
assessment and mathematics teaching (e.g., Brookhart 2003; Duncan and Noonan 2007;
Krzywacki et al. 2012).

● Although there might be some resistance to change, even when teachers want to shift their
practice and incorporate more current assessment practices, it is difficult to change without
many other factors in place, such as changing students', parents' and administrators' views.
(Marynowski 2015; William 2015)For instance, while involving students in the assessment
process is seen as important (Tillema 2014), Semena and Santos’ work (2012) suggests that
incorporating students in the assessment process is a very complex task.
● The pedagogical transformation in the twenty first century mathematics classroom has called
for innovative assessment approaches that are more coherent and integrated. Innovative
assessment does not merely incorporate innovative tasks or use of technology but should
incorporate applications of knowledge and skills, be relevant to real-world problem
situations and provide useful instructional feedback among other purposes. Innovative
 assessment enables educators to assess students’ conceptual understanding that involves
higher order thinking skills and deeper mental activities.

● Innovative Assessment Approach - enables educators to assess students' conceptual

understanding that involves higher-order thinking skills and deeper mental activities. •
Quizzes
• Minute Papers
• Essay questions/Journal Entries
• Portfolios
• Exams
• Attitude Surveys
• Open-ended Questions

● Large-scale Test - assisting learning, measuring individual student achievement, evaluating

programs (for students)
New online in-service professional development programmes for teachers and leaders

Teacher training workshops/integrating technology into classroom activities, Incentives to

participate in in-service teacher training programmes, encouraging high-performing
students to join the teaching profession through incentives, and increasing salaries,
Improving teachers’ pedagogical skills and teaching literacy, and, Incentives for teachers

● The aim of the assessments is misunderstood nowadays. Laura Greenstein, author of the
book, What Teachers Really Need To Know About Formative Assessment explains in her
blog , “assessment is more than a test, it is physical, social and emotional too.”

● Assessments are not the end; it is a process from start to end. Most assessments happen at
the end and learning outcomes are measured at the end period. There is no mechanism to
gauge understanding of small nuggets, concepts and lessons. The focus on the personal
quotient of each student seems far from reality. The assessments ideally should provide the
strengths and weaknesses of each student so teachers can adjust and guide student learning
accordingly.
● Cycle of Assessment - Assessment is a never-ending cycle of improvement. Every given
assessment there is an improvement in a student or even the teachers because here the
teachers can see and observe if their teaching is effective.
● Pre-assessment- allows teachers to evaluate the students' understanding before beginning to
teach. It can occur at the start of a lesson, the beginning of a unit or the introduction of a new
idea, concept or skill.

Some Key Challenges of Assessments

The proliferation of multiple assessment organizations and tools are commendable. In the study
conducted by Lydia M. Conca, Carlota P. Schecter, and Sharon Castle about the conversations for
what teachers talked of assessment driven instruction-assessment it was found – that 46% of their
time is spent on assessments and assessment-driven instruction. Other evidence suggests that the
classroom was engaged based on the topics that comprise assessment over individual students'
needs. They surveyed 50 teachers to find out the top 5 assessment challenges in the online and
offline way of teaching.

ONLINE ASSESSMENT
1. Encounter technical difficulties
2. Time to upload the questions and time to upload the images
3. Framing papers is difficult for teachers
4. Unfamiliarity in how to complete the assessment
5. Answering subjective type questions posed problems to middle and high school
OFFLINE ASSESSMENT
1. Time Management
2. Planning ahead/study skills
3. Paucity of time to practice in class
4. Ongoing assessment is time-consuming
5. Personalized attention and picking the learning gap tedious

2.5.2
Dilemmas Teacher Face
Reporters: Cristell Angelou Balingcasag and Roilan Mejos

What is a Dilemma?

-a situation in which a difficult choice has to be made between two different things you could do.

-dilemmas can be challenging and stressful to navigate, and they require careful consideration
and reflection to make the best possible decision.

In teaching there are also dilemmas that the teachers encounter that usually gives time for
assessment and perhaps could affect the assessment method.
According to the Framework of Windschitl (2002) there are 4 categories of Dilemmas which are
the CONCEPTUAL, PEDAGOGICAL, POLITICAL AND CULTURAL dilemmas.

Conceptual Dilemma “what to”

● Conceptual dilemmas in assessment occur as teachers seek to understand the conceptual

underpinnings of assessment and move their thinking from seeing assessment as an event
at the end of a unit to assessment as ongoing and embedded in instruction.
● Windschitl (2002) understands conceptual dilemmas as teachers' difficulties with
understanding the theoretical foundations of constructivism and negotiating their current
beliefs, teaching philosophies, and epistemologies with those of constructivism.
● An example of a conceptual dilemma would be if a teacher understands the nature of
knowledge as absolute and thus grapples with the constructivist understanding of student
knowledge construction. Braaten and Sheth (2017) point out that this dimension includes
 the notion of “what ‘counts’ as knowledge and practice” and can be expanded
beyond a teacher's struggle with constructivist epistemologies. (p. 139).
- Constructivist epistemologies refer to a set of theories that focus on the ways in which
knowledge is constructed, rather than simply acquired or transmitted. These theories
suggest that individuals actively create knowledge through their experiences, interactions,
and interpretations of the world around them.
- At the heart of constructivist epistemologies is the idea that knowledge is not fixed or
objective, but rather is subjective and dependent on the individual's perceptions and
experiences. In this view, knowledge is not something that can be directly observed or
measured, but rather is constructed through social interactions, language use, and personal
experiences.
● A conceptual dilemma in assessment could arise when there is a conflict between two or
more important principles or concepts related to the assessment process.
● In Conceptual Dilemma there is this “why of Assessment”

When we think about the "why" of assessment, we are asking questions such as:

1. What is the purpose of this assessment?

2. What do we hope to achieve by assessing student learning?
3. How will the results of the assessment be used to improve teaching and learning?

Pedagogical dilemma ”how to”

● This includes the challenge of encouraging students to bring in and develop their own ways
of thinking while also moving their thinking towards scientifically accepted ideas.
● Windschitl (2002) characterizes pedagogical dilemmas as teachers' difficulties with enacting
facilitation practices that promote student learning in the way it is understood by
constructivism. Braaten and Sheth (2017) pinpoint pedagogical dilemmas as “balancing
acts between seemingly incommensurate teaching practices” (p. 140). Suurtamm and Koch
(2014) pragmatically describe this dimension in the context of assessment as “dealing with
the ‘how to’ of assessment” (p. 269).

In general, we can characterize pedagogical dilemmas as challenges that arise when teachers
consider the question of how to teach.

Teachers face pedagogical dilemmas as they wrestle with the “how to” of assessment practices in
creating and enacting assessment opportunities. These might occur as teachers work on developing
a checklist for recording observations, designing a rubric, or asking others for ways to find time to
conference with students.

Pedagogical dilemma of a teacher refers to a situation where a teacher faces a difficult choice or a
conflict between two or more approaches or strategies in teaching. It involves making decisions
that affect the learning outcomes of students, which can be challenging and often require careful
consideration.
Some common examples of pedagogical dilemmas that teachers may face include:

● Balancing individual student needs with the needs of the whole class
● Encouraging student participation while maintaining control
● In general, pedagogical dilemmas can arise from the tension between different educational
values, such as autonomy vs. control, individuality vs. conformity, and exploration vs.
mastery. As such, teachers must consider these values carefully when making decisions and
strive to find a balance that supports the needs and goals of all their students.

The teacher must ensure that there is equality and quality education inside the classroom

Cultural Dilemma

Many teachers face cultural dilemmas, and often these are seen as the most difficult to solve. They
might arise as new assessment practices challenge the established classroom, school, or general
culture. For instance, students might confront the teacher with questions if, rather than receiving a
grade on a piece of work, the student receives descriptive feedback. Or, cultural dilemmas might
arise if 26 Assessment in Mathematics Education the teacher is adopting new assessment practices
but is the only one in his or her department to do so and is met with some resistance from others.
As described in Windschitl’s (2002) literature review of constructivism in practice, cultural
dilemmas arise due to the role shifts from traditional teaching that are required for teachers and
students to facilitate a constructivist sense of learning. Viktor's dilemma described at the beginning
of this paper is a typical cultural dilemma, in which the teacher tries to implement a constructivist
classroom environment, but the students expect a traditional classroom environment based on their
experiences in other classroomsSuurtamm and Koch (2014) characterize cultural dilemmas
similarly, while Braaten and Sheth (2017), who investigated dilemmas that arise in a teacher's
attempt to teach for equity, explicitly include dilemmas around power structures arising from racial
and ethnic marginalization. For our generalizing goal, we frame cultural dilemmas as tensions
connected to the roles of any actors in the classroom, i.e., teachers and students. In a pragmatic
way, this dilemma can be expressed as challenges that arise around who is responsible for what in
teaching and learning.

Political Dilemma “key others”

Windschitl (2002) understands political dilemmas as challenges that arise when “key others” (p.
133), such as parents, administrators, or local and state politicians, impose policies and norms on
teachers' constructivist practices. For example, a teacher experiences a political dilemma if
competencies tested in standardized tests do not align with what the teacher thinks is most
important for students to successfully construct knowledge. Suurtamm and Koch (2014) apply the
same definition for conflicts between stakeholders' and teachers’ beliefs about assessment. Braaten
and Sheth (2017) highlight the challenges that arise when teachers try to establish equity-oriented
teaching practices “within and around constraints of systems of accountability, institutional
structures, and tumultuous political climates” (p. 140). In general, we can characterize political
dilemmas as any type of tension that arises because people or entities outside the classroom, i.e.,
stakeholders and policies, challenge teacher beliefs or classroom cultures and practices.
What appears helpful about this parsing out of dilemmas into categories is that different types of
dilemmas might require different types of support. For instance, in many cases, pedagogical
dilemmas, the ‘how to’ of assessment, might be resolved through a workshop or through teachers
sharing resources. However, cultural dilemmas are not as easily solved and might require time and
focused communication to resolve. Although this parsing out of dilemmas is helpful when looking
at supports, it should also be recognized that the dilemmas types interact. In other words, a policy
cannot be invoked without understanding that it will have pedagogical, cultural, and conceptual
implications and pedagogical resources won’t be employed if there is not enough conceptual
understanding or cultural shifts.
2.5.3 Supporting Teachers
Reporters: Abegail Marie Tan and Ethyl Miomio

What is a Supporting Teacher?

To promote high academic stan- dards, teachers need to create supportive social contexts and
develop positive relationships with students.
● Some would suggest that adopting and using new assessment practices is a complex
process that needs to be well supported, particularly by other colleagues (e.g., Crespo and
Rigelman 2015). As Black et al. (2004)
● As part of embedding assessments into instructional practice, teachers first need to reflect
on their current practice and then try changes in small steps, much like the “engineering
design” approach to assessment development advocated by Swan and Burkhardt (2012)
● Hunsader and colleagues have been working with both pre-service and in-service
teachers to assist them in becoming critical consumers and developers of classroom
assessment tasks (Hunsader et al. 2015)
● Webb’s study (2012) focused on middle school teachers working over a four-year period
in a professional learning situation to improve their classroom assessment practice.
Teachers engaged in a variety of collaborative activities, such as assessment planning,
and analysis of classroom tasks and student work.
● What is the teacher's role in supporting learning?
Teachers represent faculty and staff who are responsible for using a variety of
instructional strategies to address individual students' strengths and needs, thereby
ensuring each student has an opportunity to learn and succeed.
● Marynowski’s study (2015) documented the work of secondary mathematics teachers who
were supported by a coach over one year as they worked on co-constructing formative
assessment opportunities and practices.
● One of the positive results was that teachers noticed that students were held more
accountable for their learning and were more engaged in the learning process. Teachers
appreciated the immediate feedback about student learning but also some teachers noted
resistance on the part of students (Marynowski 2015).
● Lee et al. (2015) were involved with 6 colleagues in a self-study of a Professional Learning
Community (PLC) set within a university course. Within this PLC they sought to refine
the assessment practices they were using in their own classrooms They focused on
developing questioning techniques by role playing questioning techniques, refining those
techniques, using the techniques with their own students in interviews, and bringing back
 the results of the conversations to the PLC. The group reported an increased level of
awareness of teacher-student dialogue.
● Other professional learning activities that had positive impacts on teachers’ assessment
expertise and practice include lesson study with a focus on assessment (Intanate 2012),
working with student work samples from formative assessment opportunities in teachers’
classrooms (Dempsey et al. 2015), and shifting from merely feedback to formative feedback
for teachers in a Grade 1 classroom (Yamamoto 2012).
● In some cases, the professional learning was occurring in a pre-service or in-service
classroom setting which further provides an opportunity for the mathematics teacher
educator to model sound assessment practices.
● The Professional Learning Community model provides an environment where the teacher is
not working in isolation but is able to share ideas and lean on colleagues to help solve
dilemmas

2.5.4 Suggestions for Future Works

(Yesa Jean Saburnido & Diana Rose Omreso)

● Teacher preparation programs (TPP) are where prospective teachers gain a foundation of
knowledge about pedagogy and subject matter, as well as early exposure to practical
classroom experience. Teachers make a difference. The success of any plan for improving
educational outcomes depends on the teachers who carry it out and thus on the abilities of
those attracted to the field and their preparation. Preparing Teachers addresses the issue of
teacher preparation with specific attention to reading, mathematics, and science. Preparing
Teachers also identifies a need for a data collection model to provide valid and reliable
information about the content knowledge, pedagogical competence, and effectiveness of
graduates from the various kinds of teacher preparation programs. Teacher educators need
to know how best to contribute to the development of effective teachers. Clearer
understanding of the content and character of effective teacher preparation is critical to
improving it. Assessment is a constant cycle of improvement. It aims to improve the quality
of education. Teachers face many dilemmas in assessment, this can be solved by adopting
new assessment practices but it requires a deep conceptual shift. They might arise as new
assessment practices challenge the established classroom, school or general culture. Using
assessment results for formative and summative purposes. Teachers who are skilled at using
assessment results for formative purposes are able to provide helpful feedback to students
on their learning and adjust their teaching to address student’s needs.

● Assessment should enhance mathematics learning and support good instructional practice.
Assessments indicate to students what they should learn. They specify and give concrete
meaning to valued learning goals. One way to provide opportunities for the construction of
mathematical knowledge is through assessment tasks that resemble learning that promote
strategies such as analyzing data, drawing contrasts, and making
connections. In mathematics there is also a need for strategies and teaching approaches
which can enhance the students’ understanding of mathematical concepts, develop
mathematical thinking and improve their attitude towards learning. These strategies are also
 expected to stimulate the students’ motivation to learn how to learn more effectively and
successfully, and to activate the teacher on how to discuss the instructional materials
effectively and with great confidence.

● Advantages and disadvantages of teachers that attended several trainings, seminars and
mentoring when it comes to teaching and making assessments.
❖ Advantages:
1) Encourage a wide variety of strategies in problem solving and
investigation.
2) Use a range of assessment procedures which reflect different approaches to
teaching and learning.

❖ Disadvantages:
1. Lack of commitment to work and negative attitude towards work
2. Lack of collaboration by the teachers

● Teachers who are reluctant in adopting new practices in teaching and assessment should stay
to do traditional assessments like “tests” taken with paper and pencil that are usually
true/false, matching, or multiple choice. It is one of the faster ways of evaluating student
learning. However, it limits a student's potential and it does not develop extensive
comprehensive skills.
Summary

Enhancing sound assessment knowledge and practices means improving the understanding and
implementation of effective assessment strategies in a particular field or context. It involves a
commitment to using evidence-based approaches to assess individuals, programs, or systems
accurately, reliably, and fairly.

Enhancing sound assessment knowledge and practices can include several activities, such as
learning about best practices in assessment, designing and implementing assessment tools,
collecting and analyzing data, interpreting assessment results, and using data to inform decision-
making. This process also requires a deep understanding of the context in which assessment is
taking place, including the cultural, social, and economic factors that may impact the validity and
reliability of assessment tools and results.

Ultimately, enhancing sound assessment knowledge and practices is essential for ensuring that
assessments are valid, reliable, and fair, and that they accurately capture the knowledge, skills, and
abilities of individuals or groups being assessed. This, in turn, can lead to improved decision-
making, better outcomes, and more equitable opportunities for all.
References:
● https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0742051X21003541 ●
https://www.sciencedirect.com/search?qs=%E2%80%9Cconsidering%20the%20%
E2%80%98why%E2%80%99%20of%20assessment%E2%80%9D ●
https://www.moedu-sail.org/topic/sound-assessment-design-importance-overview/ ●
https://www.assessmentnetwork.net/blog/epic-demic-assessment-after-the-interlude/
 toolbox/fundamentals/foundations-of-assessment/
References:

Maradula Singh, Assessment Challenges - What Teachers Say

http://www.nexschools.com/article-details/Assessments-Challenges-~-What-Teachers-Say/1196.
aspx
Silvia Montoya, Director of the UNESCO- A Sound Investment: The Benefits of Large-Scale
Learning Assessments https://uis.unesco.org/en/blog/sound-investment-benefits-large-scale-
learning-assessments