2018 Volume 24 Issue 2 Pages 37-49
The purpose of this paper is to embody the teaching and learning of mathematics for realizing students’ deep learning to foster their mathematical competencies and abilities in high school mathematics. Mathematical competencies and abilities can’t be fully assessed by conventional paper tests alone. Therefore, we focused on performance assessment as a method to evaluate students’ competencies and abilities nurtured in their authentic mathematics learning.
First, we reviewed the concept and procedure of performance assessment. Second, we practiced the performance assessment on two mathematics teaching units for 53 first grade students of the high school where the first author of this paper worked with two collaborative mathematics teachers. Based on the evaluation of the students’ reports in the two performance assessments and the results of the questionnaire conducted after the each class, we examined how the incorporation of performance assessment in the end of teaching unit affected students’ mathematical competencies and abilities.
As a result of qualitative and quantitative analyses, the following three points were found out.
(1) Performance assessment in the end of teaching unit is effective for encouraging students’ deep learning of mathematics in a classroom.
(2) Evaluating students’ competencies and abilities by using the shared rubrics on mathematical tasks in performance assessment will improve the level of mathematics teachers’ understanding of teaching units and materials.
(3) In order to do continuously performance assessment in a school, it is important for mathematics teachers to make carefully a year plan of incorporating performance assessment in the teaching and learning of mathematics in advance.
