Design of assessment tasks in grade seven mathematics

Abstract

The study reports on two Grade 7 mathematics teachers’ assessment practices in an attempt to identify the knowledge and competencies that they have and use in designing Grade 7 mathematics tasks and how they provide feedback to the learners. These two Grade 7 mathematics teachers were selected from schools that had consistently good results despite disabling teaching conditions such as large and under–resourced classes. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with the teachers to assess their knowledge and practice of continuous assessment. Classroom observation and analysis of teacher’s portfolio and learners’ exercise books were undertaken to triangulate data on teachers’ practices and interview protocols. A mathematics taxonomy referred to as MATH taxonomy was used as a framework to evaluate teacher mathematics assessment tasks in grade 7 lessons. Classroom observations focused on how the two teachers planned and implemented their Grade 7 mathematics lessons with emphasis on the assessment procedures. The results of the study showed that the two teachers had rudimentary knowledge and understanding of continuous assessment and its practice. Both teachers failed to demonstrate knowledge or ability with any knowledge taxonomy including the MATH taxonomy in designing (or selecting) their mathematics assessment tasks in Grade 7. The mathematics assessment tasks frequently used by the teachers were sourced from the school textbooks, and these were found to be mainly recall-type questions involving routine procedures, and which according to the math taxonomy are classified as low order thinking assessment tasks. Furthermore both teachers presented feedback to their learners in superficial ways that would not necessarily assist the latter to improve in their learning methods and the former in their teaching methods. The education implications of the findings of this study are discussed.