Abstract
The purpose of the project reported in this article was to evaluate how assessing teachers’ mathematical knowledge within a professional development course impacted from the teachers’ perspective their learning and their experience with the course. The professional development course consisted of a 2-week summer institute and the content focus was geometry. We had decided to assess the mathematical learning of the teachers during this professional development course for various accountability reasons, but were concerned about possible negative by-products of this decision on the teachers and their participation. Thus, we worked to design assessment in ways that we hoped would minimize negative impacts and maintain a supportive learning environment. In addition, we undertook this evaluation to examine the impacts of the assessment, which included homework, quizzes, various projects, and an examination for program evaluation. Seventeen grade 5–9 teachers enrolled in the course participated in the study by completing written reflections and by describing their experiences in interviews. We learned that while our original intent was “to do no harm,” the teachers reported that their learning was enhanced by the assessment. The article concludes by describing the various properties of the assessments that the teachers identified as contributing to their learning of the geometry content, many of which align with current recommendations for assessing and evaluating grade K-16 mathematics students.
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Notes
Cathy is a pseudonym, as are all the teachers’ names.
The teachers’ grades were not calculated or posted until 3 weeks after the completion of the 2-week institute. Thus, no data was collected with regard to how the teachers felt with respect to their final grades.
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Acknowledgment
The authors would like to thank Dr. Andrew Neumann for assisting in data collection and early analysis and Dr. Robert Powers for reading earlier drafts of this article and providing feedback. In addition, we want to thank the reviewers of the article and Dina Tirosh. Their comments greatly assisted with making the article more streamlined and with highlighting the important results from the project. The professional development studied here was supported by the High Plains Mathematics and Science Partnership Project funded by the Colorado Department of Education and by the Mathematics and Science Teaching Institute at the University of Northern Colorado. Research activity was also supported by the Center for Learning and Teaching in the West, an NSF-funded initiative.
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Chamberlin, M.T., Farmer, J.D. & Novak, J.D. Teachers’ perceptions of assessments of their mathematical knowledge in a professional development course. J Math Teacher Educ 11, 435–457 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-008-9088-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10857-008-9088-6