Assessing mathematics with average ability students in the secondary school

Abstract

The aim of this research was to investigate whether performance tasks would be suitable for assessing Mathematics in secondary school with average ability students. The performance task that was constructed purposefully for this study, was administered in a class of 23 students in a Form 3 Junior Lyceum. A scoring rubric was then adapted to assess this performance task. It was supplemented by a self-administered questionnaire and interviews so that both the students' cognitive and affective attitudes towards the task would be identified. The results gathered were later discussed in the light of the review of literature done in the first two chapters in which it was discussed the current assessment and the suggested types of assessment. Also the proposals on assessment as proposed in the Draft Maltese National Curriculum were taken into account when discussing all these issues.