Original: French

DATE:

NUMBER:

TITLE: Measuring Success in Science and Mathematics Education

INTRODUCTION: This "Brief" discusses the characteristics of practices that will have to be adopted for the assessment of success in science and mathematics education; such success being measured increasingly in terms of the acquisition and development of relevant skills, positive attitudes and desirable behaviours.

DESCRIPTION: The teaching of science and mathematics will necessarily undergo substantial changes during the next few years. The object of these changes is to develop in students the skills, attitudes and behaviours that will enable them to flourish in tomorrow's constantly and deeply changing world. Conventional teaching methods, which consist in the mechanical transmittal of factual knowledge and routine skills, are inadequate in this regard. Such methods must be replaced by a more dynamic teaching approach in which learning corresponds to "an active social process in which students build their own knowledge from experience." (NCTM, 1993, p. 37) Upstream from teaching, changes can be anticipated in curricula; these will have to be enriched, without overloading them, by centering knowledge around fertile, relevant and meaningful integrating themes that are more likely to lead to targeted learning.

If the changes required in education are to produce the anticipated results, assessment practices must develop in the desired direction. Today, assessment still focuses to a large extent on measuring factual knowledge and checking routine skills. Learning associated with more elaborate processes, such as problem solving or the scientific process, more often than not is assessed via conventional methods (written tests, multiple-choice questions) that greatly limit the scope of that assessment. The following paragraphs explore possible avenues whereby assessment might contribute to the new approach to education.

Assessment must seek to present a complete picture of the targeted learning. All areas (knowledge, skills and behaviour) must be dealt with in the proportions determined by their actual importance in the curricula, and not on the basis of external criteria such as the ease with which they can be assessed. Moreover, assessment must be based on clear standards, expressed in terms of learning to be achieved, instead of in reference to given procedures of statistical comparisons between groups or individuals.

Assessment must stem from planning which, among other things, identifies the responsibilities of the various stakeholders (province, school board, school, teacher and student) and guarantees the consistency and equity of actions. For example, external measures must complement and be in harmony with the types of assessment advocated in class, not contradict them. Assessment planning must also equip stakeholders by giving them indications on the relative importance of curriculum contents, appropriate means of assessing them and the criteria for doing so.

The teacher plays a vital role in the assessment of learning, which is built up over relatively long periods and requires ongoing monitoring as well as appropriate and timely interventions. Because of their close and constant presence, teachers are the best-placed education stakeholders to observe progress and judge the quality of such learning. Efforts should be made to facilitate assessment by teachers and improve their skills in the development and use of various measurement tools.

Students must be made aware of their responsibilities with regard to assessment. They must be informed of expectations and be able to refer to them at any time; they must be able to position themselves in relation to these expectations. Students who are able to take stock of their progress are more likely to believe in their training. Assessment by students contributes to a better understanding of the subject and develops tolerance for the views of others. Training students to engage in self-assessment, to reflect upon the quality of their work and seek to improve upon it constitutes one of the best services that the school can provide.

Assessment must contribute to enhancing students' commitment to their studies and developing positive attitudes, such as self-confidence and the desire to learn. Accordingly, assessment tasks must be stimulating, present a certain challenge to the student, and correspond to the student's tastes and interests. Such tasks must also be authentic and lead to useful results, raise new questions, offer a wealth of possibilities, and permit divergence, diversity, innovation and excellence.

Assessment results must be drawn from a variety of specialized sources. The learning targeted by the new approach to education is far from easy to measure. Because of this, it is preferable to base the validity of a judgment on the convergence of observations from a variety of sources. Thus, the weaknesses of one source are offset by the strengths of another. It is important, moreover, to use the sources that are most appropriate to the situations being measured. Assessment of the use of problem-solving strategies, for instance, calls for methods that will allow access to a student's reasoning (e.g., oral or written description of the approach taken). Several methods, grouped under the heading "alternative assessment measures," are proposed to facilitate the assessment of complex learning. These include formal and informal observation, questioning, interviewing, complex productions (ranging from open questions to sophisticated projects), the logbook and the portfolio. These methods, which are more difficult to apply but are also better tailored than conventional methods to the new approach to education, have not yet come into widespread use.

The purpose of assessment must not be only to measure and judge; it must also help to improve learning. Assessment must be an ongoing concern in education. This does not mean that it should take up all of one's time, but rather that one must remain alert in order to detect opportunities for and signs of progress in students. Formal assessment periods can even constitute excellent learning situations. Among the reference frameworks for judging learning, it is important to choose those that are most favourable to progress. Assessment reports and results must be expressed in concrete terms that are understandable to students and to their other intended readers. A balance sheet, in the form of a profile, is more likely to be useful for the subsequent monitoring of events than an overall numerical mark delivered without any other form of explanation.

Technology development should open some promising vistas in the teaching and assessment of science and mathematics. Virtual reality will make available a multitude of "concrete" realities offering a wealth of learning opportunities that are liable to interest students. Hypermedia documentation systems are already making available to students a huge quantity of visual and sound information that they can explore and discover at their own pace. Expert learning-assessment systems keep a memory record of the individual student's progress, analyse his/her actions and tailor the next stages to achieve optimum learning. A student who is called upon to establish a relational data base as part of a research project will have to define the nature and structure of the sought-after information, gather that information, determine the unifying links between its various components, and program the whole thing with a view to simple and effective use. Technology can also benefit assessment management. The simplification of data input procedures (voice recognition, electronic pens, remote data entry, etc.) and the more widespread use of data bases will encourage the use of assessment methods that produce large amounts of data (e.g. observation checklists). Finally, we are not all that far away from the day when parents will be able to consult their child's academic record via interactive television. This record will be an animated version of the present descriptive report card and, among other things, will include annotated samples of the child's work as well as short filmed sequences of the child's behaviour in class.

CONCLUSION: New practices in assessment as in other areas require strong leadership from ministries of education. In Canada, the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (of the provinces) has organized the School Achievement Indicators Project (SAIP) to enable the assessment of math, language and science skills of students across the country. However, many of the characteristics of good assessment practice described in this paper cannot be implemented on a nationwide basis, but at the level of individual classrooms. Ensuring that these changes take place in a relatively decentralized education system is the challenge that faces Canadians now. Encouragement and support of individual teachers is the key to improvement and the Commission can assist in bringing such innovations to the general attention of teachers throughout the world.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Conseil supérieur de l'éducation. L'intégration des savoirs au secondaire : au coeur de la réussite éducative. Advice submitted to the Minister of Education and the Minister of Higher Education and Science. Communications Branch, Quebec City, 1990, 57 pages.

Culotta, E. "Curriculum Reform: Project 2061 Offers a Benchmark." Science, 262, October 1993.

Corporate Higher Education Forum. Learning Goals for K-12 Education: To Be Our Best. Montreal, 1992, 9 pages.

NCTM (Assessment Standards Working Groups of National Council of Teachers of Mathematics). Assessment Standards for School Mathematics (working draft). Reston, VA, 1993, 244 pages.

NCTM (National Council of Teachers of Mathematics). Mathematics Assessment: Myths, Models, Good Questions and Practical Suggestions. Edited by J.K. Steinmark. Reston, VA, 1991, 65 pages.

Equity Principles in the Assessment of School Learning in Canada (translation of French title), Edmonton, Alberta: Joint Advisory Committee (mailing address: Centre for Research in Applied Measurement and Evaluation, 3-104 Education Building North, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, T6G 2G5)

Steinmark, J.K. Assessment Alternatives in Mathematics: An overview of assessment techniques that promote learning. Sponsored by the EQUALS Program and the Assessment Committee of the California Mathematics Council Campaign for Mathematics. University of California, 1989, 35 pages.

Webb, N.L. Assessment of Students' Knowledge of Mathematics: Steps Toward a Theory. Handbook of Research on Mathematics Teaching and Learning: A Project of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Edited by Douglas A. Grouws, Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992, pp. 661-683.

_______________

The Working Group thanks Denis Savard (Research Officer, Conseil supérieur de l'éducation) for his collaboration in the preparation of this "Brief".

This "Brief" is one of a series of six. The others are: Science and Mathematics Education in a New Social and Economic Context; The Participation of Girls and Young Women in Science and Mathematics Education; The Education of Science and Mathematics Teachers; Information and Communication Technologies in Science and Mathematics Education; Partnerships to Strengthen Science and Mathematics Education. The views expressed in this "Brief" do not necessarily represent those of the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, but rather reflect those of the Commission's Sub-Commission on Natural Sciences and its Working Group.