Obstacles in Implementation of Peer Assessment in Inquiry Based Primary Mathematics Education

Author(s):

Iva Žlábková(presenting / submitting)Alena Hošpesová Iva Stuchlíková

Conference:

ECER 2017

Network:

24. Mathematics Education Research

Format:

Paper

Session Information

24 SES 08,

Paper Session

Time:

2017-08-24

09:00-10:30

Room:

K6.04

Chair:

Ken Brown

Contribution

The aim of the contribution is to present the results of Czech part of the international project named Assess Inquiry in Science, Technology and Mathematics Education (ASSIST-ME) that investigated formative assessment in inquiry-based mathematics education. The aim of the project was to develop and verify methods of formative assessment (in the Czech part namely peer assessment) which could be applied in everyday instructional settings and complemented with commonly used methods of summative assessment. The contribution will deal with primary mathematics education.

Inquiry-based mathematics education (IBME) includes a variety of approaches to mathematics teaching based on pupils´ independent inquiry. The inspiration came from science education; although it is possible to find connections with approaches implemented in mathematics education in the past, namely problem solving and guided rediscovery (Artigue & Blomhoj, 2013).

The research on practice of formative peer-assessment is a broad and living area (c.f. Bernholt et al., 2013). The notion of formative assessment (that means assessment for learning) became an important idea in educational context in late nineties (Black & Wiliam, 1998). Later Black and William (2009) stated that formative assessment is the core strategy to activating students. The practice of formative peer-assessment was investigated by many authors. Hodgson and Pyle (2010) reviewed several articles on different aspects of formative assessment including the way that peer-assessment can feed into the development of self-assessment skills, the use of different techniques for eliciting peer-assessment, the links between feedback from peers and from teachers and how the development of a formative classroom climate can help to promote peer- and self-assessment activities.

This study follows the contribution presented at the conference ECER 2015 (Žlábková et al., 2015, August). We analyzed data from several educational experiments which took part in primary mathematics classrooms. Research team of the Czech part of the project focused on a theme: What support do teachers need in order to interpret formative assessment data and provide productive feedback for IBSTME? In this contribution we will focus on the difficulties encountered by teachers and their pupils when applying formative peer assessment in IBME.

Method

ASSIST-ME was a design-based research project. Methods of formative assessment were at first conceptualized in relation to IBME and to development of inquiry-related students’ competences. The interventions (inquiry-based teaching units with comprise the opportunities for formative assessment) was then developed and iteratively tested with pairs of teachers in their regular teaching. Main method of formative assessment under scrutiny was formative peer-assessment. The teachers cooperated together and with the researchers (authors of this contribution) on the preparation of the teaching units. In the end they realized 8-12 lessons long teaching experiments in the period of two months. The teaching experiments were videotaped and transcribed, as well as the interviews with teachers and pupils before/after them. All pupils’ productions were copied. Data processing were based on qualitative approach. Repeated observation of videos help us to identified main obstacles. Transcripts were coded via open coding. The codes were derived from the characteristics of the inquiry-based education and perceived actions. Gradually, a list of codes including codes for activities of teachers (assignment, explaining on own teacher´s initiative, explaining on the initiative of pupils, monitoring the activities of the pairs / groups of pupils, discussion with pupils, pairs / groups giving feedback, questions to individual, pairs / groups requesting clarification, feedback directing solutions for the entire class, individuals, pairs / groups, reactions to pupils explanations, general evaluation of pupils 'work, assessment of pupils' work, putting knowledge into context with previously learned, an indication of the importance of knowledge for the future), and pupils (clarification request, comments on the problem, solving tasks in pairs / groups, a request for clarification during the solution of the problem, a request for equipment, loud comment on the solution of the problem solution summary, reaction to summarize the teacher) were created. Gradually emerged specific issues related to obstacles that teachers and pupils had with introducing and conducting pupils´ independent inquires and assessment of their work.

Expected Outcomes

Data analysis showed that the main concern in implementation of formative assessment in IBME was the teachers’ feeling of loss of control on the instruction. The teachers enter an unknown terrain and have to react to unexpected or unclear pupils’ contributions in classroom discourse. IBME starts with an open problem that can be solved in different ways, some of them may not be consistent with the intention of the teacher. It leads to the situation that the formulation of objectives of the lesson and criteria of achievement are too general, the teacher may fail to register the evidence of a pupil’s understanding and may fail to provide feedback that would move the learners forward. Another obstacle was connected with the opportunity of peer-assessment given to the pupils. They compared solution of classmates with their own solution and assessed according to that regardless of the correctness of their own solution. In the discussion we will mainly focus: (a) on the interplay of teachers’ intention, subject matter and learners in inquiry; (b) the teachers’ role in support of pupils’ learning and on how they use assessment; (c) the pupils’ role in their own learning and learning of peers. Research data proved the potential of the peer-feedback as a formative assessment in inquiry education. Teachers (and some students) reflected the benefits of formative assessment for learning progression. Formative assessment is nonetheless an integral part of mathematics curriculum and its implementation is therefore difficult (Žlábková & Rokos, 2013). The results of not only Czech team showed the necessity to create the support of formative assessment methods implementation; the project has collected evidence about the needs of teachers and students.

References

Artigue, M., & Blomhoj, M. (2013). Conceptualizing inquiry-based education in mathematics. ZDM Mathematics Education, 45, 797–810. ASSIST-ME (Assess Inquiry in Science, Technology and Mathematics Education) (2017, January 15). Retrieved from http://assistme.ku.dk/ Bernholt, S., Rönnebeck, S., Ropohl, M., Köller, O., & Parchmann, I. (2013). Report on current state of the art in formative and summative assessment in IBE in STM. Copenhagen: University of Copenhagen. Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998) Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education, 5(1), 7–71. Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the Theory of Formative Assessment. Educational Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability 21(1), 5–31. Harlen, W. (2013). Assessment & inquiry-based science education: issues in policy and practice. Trieste, Italy: Global Network of Science Academies. Hodgson, C., & Pyle, K. (2010). A Literature Review of Assessment for Learning in Science. Slough: NFER. Žlábková, I., Stuchlíková, I., Hošpesová, A., Kouřilová, J. & Mazehóová, Y. (2015, August). Case Study of Implementation of Formative Peer Assessment in Inquiry Based Elementary Mathematics. Paper presented at the conference ECER 2015, Budapest. Žlábková, I., & Rokos, L. (2013). Pohledy na formativní a sumativní hodnocení žáka v českých publikacích. Pedagogika, 63(3), 328–354.

Author Information

Iva Žlábková (presenting / submitting)

University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Alena Hošpesová

University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic

Iva Stuchlíková

University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, Czech Republic

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