CRPP - Conference Papers

Open-ended tasks are one mode of alternative assessment used in mathematics. This study is part of a larger research project on integrating alternative assessment strategies into mathematics daily teaching and learning. It investigates secondary one students’ performance in solving open-ended problems in Singapore context. Over three hundred secondary one students from one high-performing school and one non-high performing school participated in this study. The test consists of three open-ended tasks, covering both arithmetic and geometry. The openness of the problems includes two aspects – multiple approaches, which allow students to begin working on the problems using different approaches, and multiple acceptable answers (i.e., more than one correct answer). The results reveal that the majority of students adopted “trial and error” as the only strategy, which limited the number of possible solutions that most students can obtain. The students also experienced much difficulty in organizing their solutions. The results suggest that more variety of problem solving strategies need to be taught and documentation is another important skill that needs to be paid attention to in problem solving.

Traditionally, assessment in our local schools is largely confined to written tests or examinations where students are mainly assessed on their mathematical knowledge defined in the syllabus and textbooks, and the mastery of procedural skills in solving routine problems. As assessment is one of the key motivators of student and teacher behaviours, it is therefore not uncommon to find a high percentage of school–based assessment, modelled after the eventual national examinations where students are thoroughly prepared by constant practice of past examination papers (Menon, 2000). Such traditional mode of assessment offers very little scope for students to demonstrate their communication skills, ability to solve non-routine problems and creativity in problem-solving. To achieve a more holistic evaluation of the students, many researchers have advocated the use of alternative assessment strategies (see Cai, 1997; Clarke, 1997; Kulm, 1994; Stacey & McCrae, 1998), such as journal writing, project work, performance tasks and self-assessment. This study 1 investigates the effects of integrating performance tasks, specifically authentic and/or open-ended tasks in the mathematics classroom of a neighbourhood school, as an assessment strategy. The findings seem to suggest implicitly the positive influence of this new assessment strategy towards the learning of mathematics. In particular, the mathematics teacher noted that students persisted in their efforts to engage in solving the non-routine tasks despite experiencing difficulties.