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Performance of primary 4 students in performance-based assessment tasks
Author
Ang, Kok Cheng
Supervisor
Boo, Hong Kwen
Toh, Kok Aun
Abstract
In the revised Mathematics Syllabus, MOE (1990), increased emphasis was given to meaning making, thinking strategies, open-ended inquiry and problem solving heuristics. With increasing global competition, the vision of "Thinking Schools, Learning Nation" (TSLN) was mooted and introduced in 1997. Singapore's survival and its peoples' ability to apply and translate their learning into solving real-world hands-on problems were seen as closely linked. However, with assessment mode remaining unchanged, there is little information available for the classroom teachers to gauge their students' ability in hands-on mathematical problem solving thus far.
This exploratory study was embarked with the main purpose of addressing the information gap through administering a hands-on performance-based mathematics assessment to assess the students. This information gap could have been addressed had Singapore taken part in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS-95) Performance Assessment sub-study for mathematics for Population 1. Through this study, the researcher hoped to provide classroom teachers with a deeper insight into our students' ability "to do" and their mathematical problem-solving ability.
It involved assessing the performance of Primary 4 students in some content areas of primary mathematics using some of the performance-based tasks adopted from the TIMSS-95 Performance Assessment sub-study. Seven out of the original twelve performance tasks were selected. Five of these were mathematics-related tasks and two were mathematics-and-science-related tasks. These tasks were designed to engage students in designing experiments, manipulating materials, testing hypotheses and recording findings.
Five-hundred-and-four students from five different schools took part in the study. Owing to on-site constraints and limitations, attempts to conduct clinical one-to-one interview to validate responses was conducted only at the pilot testing stage (where sample size was 18, ie. N=18) with nine of the students (N=9).
The study found that our students, on the average, were able to out-perform the average student who made up the international community in the TIMSS-95 Performance Assessment sub-study, which Singapore did not participate. If the findings had shown otherwise (i.e. our students were not able to out-perform), it would have suggested that our present day students' ability in hands-on mathematical problem solving can only be placed at the same competency level as the students that made up the international community involved in the TIMSS-95 Performance Assessment sub-study.
The students out-performed with a performance average of 45.4% when all the seven performance tasks were considered and 48.8% with only the mathematics tasks. The students also found the around-the-bend task (60.0%) easiest and the packaging task (20.0%) hardest to complete successfully.
The students were also able to out-perform the average student from the international community in both areas of performance expectations. They has less difficulty in handling mathematical procedures (57.8%) as compared with problem solving and mathematical reasoning (43.4%). They also encountered least difficulties with numbers (77.7%) and most difficulties in the content expectation sub-category of probability (18.0%). In addition, the findings also revealed that the students did encounter varying degrees of difficulties.
This exploratory study was embarked with the main purpose of addressing the information gap through administering a hands-on performance-based mathematics assessment to assess the students. This information gap could have been addressed had Singapore taken part in the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS-95) Performance Assessment sub-study for mathematics for Population 1. Through this study, the researcher hoped to provide classroom teachers with a deeper insight into our students' ability "to do" and their mathematical problem-solving ability.
It involved assessing the performance of Primary 4 students in some content areas of primary mathematics using some of the performance-based tasks adopted from the TIMSS-95 Performance Assessment sub-study. Seven out of the original twelve performance tasks were selected. Five of these were mathematics-related tasks and two were mathematics-and-science-related tasks. These tasks were designed to engage students in designing experiments, manipulating materials, testing hypotheses and recording findings.
Five-hundred-and-four students from five different schools took part in the study. Owing to on-site constraints and limitations, attempts to conduct clinical one-to-one interview to validate responses was conducted only at the pilot testing stage (where sample size was 18, ie. N=18) with nine of the students (N=9).
The study found that our students, on the average, were able to out-perform the average student who made up the international community in the TIMSS-95 Performance Assessment sub-study, which Singapore did not participate. If the findings had shown otherwise (i.e. our students were not able to out-perform), it would have suggested that our present day students' ability in hands-on mathematical problem solving can only be placed at the same competency level as the students that made up the international community involved in the TIMSS-95 Performance Assessment sub-study.
The students out-performed with a performance average of 45.4% when all the seven performance tasks were considered and 48.8% with only the mathematics tasks. The students also found the around-the-bend task (60.0%) easiest and the packaging task (20.0%) hardest to complete successfully.
The students were also able to out-perform the average student from the international community in both areas of performance expectations. They has less difficulty in handling mathematical procedures (57.8%) as compared with problem solving and mathematical reasoning (43.4%). They also encountered least difficulties with numbers (77.7%) and most difficulties in the content expectation sub-category of probability (18.0%). In addition, the findings also revealed that the students did encounter varying degrees of difficulties.
Date Issued
2002
Call Number
QA14.S55 Ang
Date Submitted
2002