Shusterman_journal+4

My teacher had my organize the students' problem solving folders. Once a semester the students get assesed on their problem solving skills. To do this the students are presented with a word problem that they must solve. In addition they are required to write out the plan that they use to solve the problem. The students do a monthly word problem to practice for the actual assessment. All of their practice problems; in addition, to the two assessment problems are placed into a folder. The folders also include a rubric that has the scoring guide for the assesment. Each student has their own folder, which the teacher keeps for her records.

The students are assesed on their problem solving, reasoning, communication, connections and representation. For each area that they are graded on they recieve either am E, P, A, or N. The 'E' stands for expert, the 'P' for pratitioner, the 'A' for apprentice, and the 'N' for novice. In addition to receiving a letter for each area, the students also receive an E, P, A, or N for their overall score. The rubric, that is provided to the students, describes each area that they are being assessed on and what skills are needed in order to be an expert, practitioner, etc, for each area.

I think this type of assessment is valuable, because it tracks the progress of the students overtime. Since it is given once each semester, the teacher can see whether the student has improved or not. Also, I like that the students have an oppurtunity to practice the skill, by working on monthly problems. I also like that every student is provided with a rubric, because that way they know exactly what they are going to be assessed on, and how they are going to be assessed.

That being said, I do not feel that this type of assessment is authentic, nor should it be the only way that students are being assessed on problem solving skills. While the problems might be about realistic events (ie. cooking a Thanksgiving turkey), but the problems are written on paper. Therefore, there is no real-life application for the skill. Also, the practice provided to the students is exactly the same thing the students have to do for the assessment. This means that the students might learn how to solve those type of problems, but it does not accurately show their ability to use problem solving in a real life situation. In conclusion, I think that this type of assesment is a good way to prepare a student for the NECAP or to understand whether a student can solve a word problem or not, but it is not authentic and does not completely show whether a student has mastered problem solving Back to EDC 452 home page