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An Instrument To Assess Secondary School Mathematics Teachers Assessment Practice PDF
An Instrument To Assess Secondary School Mathematics Teachers Assessment Practice PDF
Shafini Suhaimi
Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjong Malim, Malaysia
shafinisuhaimi@gmail.com
Mazlini Adnan
Sultan Idris Education University, Tanjong Malim, Malaysia
maszlini@fsmt.upsi.edu.my
Introduction
Education process is divided into three main components namely teaching, learning and
assessment that complement each other to achieve optimal results. NCTM (2000) emphasized
that assessment as one of the six underlying principles of mathematics education stating that
assessment should support the learning of important mathematics and furnish useful
information to both teachers and students. Assessment plays an important role in examining
students’ understanding of a concept or skill being taught (Noraini, 2005). To fulfill this role,
assessment should be an ongoing process throughout teaching and learning. The three main
purposes of assessment are: (1) assessment of learning; (2) assessment for learning; and (3)
assessment as learning. Assessment of learning is intended to inform parents or the public
about the ability of student related to curriculum while assessment for learning is to allow
teachers to determine the next steps to be taken to enhance students’ learning (Azizi, 2010).
Assessment as learning is for students to monitor and self assess their own learning. In order
to achieve these purposes, various forms of assessment can be used by teachers such as
portfolios, projects and written assessment. Assessment usually focuses on individual
learning, learning environment, institutions involved and learning system (Azizi, 2010).
Therefore, the assessment process should be integrated with classroom activities so that
assessment carried out can improve the effectiveness of teaching and learning. Teachers’
assessment practice is crucial to help improve student learning. Through this study, a two-
layer rubric scale instrument was developed to assess secondary school mathematics teachers’
assessment practices. This instrument is hoped to help teachers identify their own assessment
practices.
Problem Statement
Assessment is an important phase in teaching and learning as it not only assesses what
students have learned and what they need to learn more but also helps teachers to identify
suitable and relevant instructions. Assessment at the beginning of the lesson helps teachers to
identify students’ existing knowledge, strengths and weaknesses that could determine the
appropriate method to employ in teachers’ instructional planning. During teaching and
learning, assessment carried out could help teachers assess students’ understanding and their
achievement in that particular subject. At the end of the lesson, assessment is used to
determine the level of acceptance of what students learned and plan the improvement from the
results obtained (McMillan, 2007). Classroom assessment includes a variety of students’
feedback as well as discussion to measure and evaluate the quality of learning process that
took place (Azizi, 2010). The use of appropriate assessment can help teachers identify the
problems faced by students while obtaining feedback on teaching activities. There are variety
of assessment practices that can be adopted by teachers to improve the effectiveness of
teaching and learning. Despite the method used by teachers, classroom assessment should be
carried out continuously to help improve student learning in each teaching unit.
As such, teacher’s assessment practices in the classroom are vital to ensure the best
teaching and learning practices can be implemented. Thus through this study, a two-layer
rubric instrument was developed to assess secondary mathematics teachers’ assessment
practices. This two-layer rubric instrument provides a more detailed input which describes not
only score but also the scale according to their level of rubric scores. In addition, each item
can also be explained using their mean scores and a clearer descriptive description of either
weak, moderate or good is justified. Each item in this instrument will be accompanied by
significant and relevant rubric. Scale of each item is determined by the scale of five scores and
five rubrics for each item were evaluated using score 0, 1 or 2 (refer Table 2).
Objectives
The objective of this study is to develop a two-layer rubric instrument to assess secondary
school mathematics teacher’s assessment practices.
Research Question
The following questions will be used to address the objective of this study:
i. How the two-layer rubric instrument to assess secondary school mathematics teacher’s
assessment practices was developed?
ii. What is the content validity?
iii. What is the satisfactory level of reliability?
Conceptual Framework
Construction of Instrument
The secondary school mathematics teacher’s assessment practices is divided into two main
components; (1) mathematics teacher’s characteristics; and (2) mathematics teacher’s
assessment practices. The components are described as follows:
Mathematics Teacher’s Characteristics
There are several characteristic that should be possessed by teacher to form appropriate
assessment practices. Such characteristics can be divided into four constructs and these
constructs are mainly from the literature.
Teacher’s Knowledge
Knowledge refers to anything that we know. In this study, knowledge refers to the knowledge
of a mathematics teacher in developing their assessment practices. To be knowledgeable in the
subject is necessary due to student sometimes asks questions beyond the syllabus and
curriculum (Mohamad Johdi, 2007). Basic knowledge of education mostly focuses on
pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) which closely related to the ability of teacher to
transform knowledge into a form that suitable for teaching as well as compatible with the
abilities and background of students. Teachers who have limited knowledge focus on specific
concepts rather than establishing relationships between facts, concepts, structure and practice
of mathematics. Some of other knowledge teacher should have is knowledge of mathematics,
knowledge about mathematics, knowledge on variety of assessment techniques and
knowledge about method of assessment.
Teacher’s Skills
Skills refer to efficiency or know-how. Skills within teacher on subject being taught are very
important to ensure teaching and learning helps students to increase their understanding. One
of the skills that should be possessed by mathematics teacher is the skill to apply various
teaching methods to suit students and their surroundings. Mohamad Johdi (2007) stated that
the diversity of teaching methods which appropriate with content and skills is necessary to
ensure smooth, engaging and effective learning. Oral questioning is important for assessment
for learning as it provides the opportunities and encourages students to ask questions, to
expand their learning, to confirm what they have learned, knowing what need to be given
more attention and help them to make notes (Henry, 2002). Teaching diversity and diversity
of assessment technique used also play a role in ensuring teaching and learning is at the
optimal level.
Teacher’s Attitudes
Attitude refers to as feelings, thoughts, beliefs, and appreciation shown through behaviour
either positive or negative. In this study, attitude is referred to the willingness of the teachers
to conduct assessment as well as their views on the use of specific assessment techniques.
Level of preparation by teachers to assess student and confident level to carry out assessment
is influenced by the way assessments done given the primary consideration is the suitability of
the applied assessment with learning objectives (Suah et al., 2010). Watt (2005) in his study
identify teachers attitude towards the use of alternative assessment and teachers employed
traditional testing as their primary method of assessment.
Subject Blueprint
The subject blueprint includes headcount by teachers to identify students’ academic progress
and their career potential. The rationale of implementing headcount in school is to project
excellence practiced in reflecting the potential of students (Zulkefly, 2011). Several possible
areas of concern of headcount include take-off value (TOV) process, setting expected target
result (ETR) and operational targeted increment (OTI). TOV refers to the value of student
work based on the existing potential and usually identified based on students’ year-end results.
OTI represents an improvement of learning outcomes with respect to some evaluation before
reaching ETR.
Learning Outcomes
Good planning and effective learning is necessary in order to achieve high quality learning.
Learning outcomes are set and to accomplish these outcomes students are to displayed their
knowledge that they have learned to the tasks given to them (Noorlyda, 2012). Learning
outcomes provide information on what need to be mastered by student and what effective
method of learning teachers can employ. Characteristics of good learning outcomes are
written explicitly, in detailed and are sequenced according to the level of difficulties based on
the syllabus and are in the form of behavior that can be observed.
Folio A
Folio A includes record keeping by teachers and its interpretation for reporting purposes.
Record is registered activities related to the development of systematic information, ability,
progress and achievement of students (Nor Haiza, 2010). Upon completion of the data
collection process, data interpretation was done to clarify student learning. Data are then
translated according to the purpose collecting them. Reporting is the final stage in assessing
student and usually done in the form of a written document that describes the progress of a
student during school sessions for a particular subject (Azizi, 2010).
Folio B
Folio B includes the enrichment, restoration and recognition process which are carried out
after the completion of the assessment activities. Follow-up measures are essential steps to
evaluate the effectiveness of students’ learning (Mohamad Johdi, 2007). It can be done
through reinforcement, guidance or enrichment. Reinforcement is conducted based on the
knowledge or skills that have been mastered by students while enrichment activities provide
the opportunities for student to carry out more challenging activities. Recognition is given to
outstanding students as it encourages them to excel (Utusan, 2012).
Based on the literature review obtained from previous study, an instrument specification table,
Table 1 was developed as follow:
Rubric
gather information about students’
learning.
give meaning to information.
integrate information.
make inferences.
make decision to improve learning.
2. The purpose of assessment Scale
carried out is to …
Rubric
provide feedback on student progress.
elicited students potential.
identify student’s weaknesses and strength.
decide on further action.
evaluate the effectiveness of teaching
methods.
3. I know that characteristic of Scale
good assessment includes…
Rubric
objectivity.
easy to administer.
easy to interpret.
comprehensive.
practical.
Instrument Validation
The instrument was validated by five experts to determine the appropriateness of the item
listed representing each construct. The principle used to validate the instrument is by referring
to the agreement of the five experts. The minimum level of acceptance for each item
validation is not less than 80 percent. Based on the analysis of the agreement of the five
experts, 44 items were maintained, 6 items were removed while 12 items were improved and
modified. Improvements and modifications were made based on the recommendation and
comments given by the experts in terms of sentence structure, replacement of idea or words
used or rephrasing items and rubric.
Instrument Reliability
Reliability refers to the accuracy and precision of a measurement procedure. Pilot study was
conducted to ensure the instrument developed has high level of reliability. High reliability is
intended to defend the accuracy of instrument developed. In this study, a pilot study was
conducted on secondary school mathematics teachers. Using the feedback obtained, reliability
analysis was then conducted using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 19.
Results of the analysis are summarized in Table 3.
According to Lim (2007), reliability value which approximately 1.00 shows that the
instrument has high reliability. Therefore, this instrument has high internal consistency. Based
on the reliability value obtained, some items were modified or removed to enhance the
reliability value.
Conclusion
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Copyright statement
Copyright © 2013 Shafini Suhaimi, Mohd Faizal Nizam Lee Abdullah, Mohd Sahandri Gani Hamzah, Che Nidzam Che Ahmad,
nd
Mazlini Adnan, Noraini Mohamed Noh: The author/s assign to 2 International Higher Education Teaching and Learning
Conference 2013 a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the
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organisers of the 2nd International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Conference 2013 to publish this document as part
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