Development and Validation of Teachers’ Assessment Belief of Mathematical Thinking Instrument

Saoud Alhunaini,Naser Abdurab,Kamisah Osman

doi:10.12973/eu-jer.11.1.179

Abstract

<p style="text-align: justify;">This study was conducted to corroborate in understanding the teachers’ beliefs about assessment practices. The prior studies related to teachers’ assessment beliefs in mathematics have been done to assess teachers’ beliefs in the general context of mathematics teaching. This study developed an instrument to assess teachers’ assessment beliefs of mathematical thinking. The research aimed to develop and validate a scale of assessment beliefs of mathematical thinking by using the confirmatory factor analysis. The first draft of the scale contained 25 items. The sample of the study consisted of 537 mathematics teachers from public schools in Oman. The instrument was a questionnaire with a 5-point Likert scale. The scale was validated by asking a number of experts in mathematics educational measurement and evaluation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was applied to test the model of assessment beliefs of mathematical thinking scale using AMOS 25.0. All constructs had acceptable reliability. The model had a good model fit for the assessment beliefs of mathematical thinking scale which obtainable from the fit indices tests. The findings revealed that all fit criteria indices were realized. The results also showed acceptable validity and construct reliability for the scale.</p>

Highlights

Educational researchers have paid more attention to teachers’ assessment beliefs and practices because they have a significant role in teachers’ efforts for improving learning quality (Widiastuti et al, 2020)
Mathematics teachers were required to show their opinions for items of Assessment Beliefs of Mathematical Thinking (ABMT), which are measured by using a five-Likert point scale ranging from 5 as “strongly agree” to 1 for “strongly disagree”
The results indicated that teachers believe that applying different tools of assessment helps to reach objectivity in assessing mathematical thinking

Summary

Introduction

Educational researchers have paid more attention to teachers’ assessment beliefs and practices because they have a significant role in teachers’ efforts for improving learning quality (Widiastuti et al, 2020). This motivated educator and researchers to look for ways that help to improve the classroom assessment practices and discover what factors that may increase or decrease the quality of these assessment practices like the teachers’ assessment beliefs. Many mathematics education researchers believed that there is an important effect of teachers’ assessment beliefs on their mathematics teaching and learning (Genc, 2005; Smith, 2010)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion