The Study of Constructed-Response Assessment of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea

Min Kyeong Kim,Mi Kyung Cho

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2015.1331a

Abstract

Background:Recently, many countries have considered various assessment methods in order to measure multiple ways of students’ thinking skills and problem solving ability. Recently, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology [MOEST] (2009) in Korea revised the mathematics curriculum, which now more focuses on enabling students to explain mathematically as well as to reflect on their thinking.Materials and methods:This method allows students to express or debate on their own ideas in order to extend their mathematical communication skills. The purposes of this study are to introduce the background of such implementation of a constructed-response assessment in Korea as well as to investigate how elementary teachers implement a constructed-response assessment in developing and refining a framework.Results:The developed grading rubric for the constructed-response problems in terms of a holistic approach was introduced. Further, the implication of applying constructed-response items to third-grade students in Korea was discussed.Conclusions:it is necessary to meet teachers’ continuing needs for the development of questions and evaluation criteria as well as pursue improvement for the quality of the constructed-response assessment.

Highlights

In the 21st century, a knowledge- and informationbased society, which is represented by keywords such as sudden change, diversification and pluralism, requires members of society to have the ability to generate creative ideas, cope with and solve problems and adapt to the changes of society
This study shows a constructed-response assessment framework with a holistic rubric by combining it with an analytic rubric of three areas, such as understanding-of-problem, problemsolving-process and communication/representation-skills
This study shows the rubric for holistic scoring, which is applied to each item by transforming 4 levels (‘Excellent’, ‘Good’, ‘Fair’ and ‘Need improvement’) to 3, 2, 1 and 0 points in 3rd grade mathematics

Summary

Introduction

In the 21st century, a knowledge- and informationbased society, which is represented by keywords such as sudden change, diversification and pluralism, requires members of society to have the ability to generate creative ideas, cope with and solve problems and adapt to the changes of society. In order to accomplish this goal, the role of education is to teach citizens to fulfill their roles as members of society and be able to develop a system where their potential can be cultivated. Education in school, from curriculum design to evaluation, must interact with and be complementary to each other. Educational assessment undertakes the primary roles (Wiliam, 2007) such as supporting learning (formative), certifying. Formative assessment provides teachers information about the degree of students' learning in order to make informed decisions on how to move on to the step. Evaluations conducted at school can diagnose and prescribe the process of students’ growth as well as foster their potential and talent

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