Book Chapter

Specific Mathematics Assessments that Reveal Thinking: An Online Tool to Build Teachers’ Diagnostic Competence and Support Teaching

K Stacey, Vicki Steinle, Elizabeth Price, E Gvozdenko

Diagnostic Competence of Mathematics Teachers: Unpacking a Complex Construct in Teacher Education and Teacher Practice | Springer | Published : 2018

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-66327-2_13

Abstract

In this chapter, we describe the design of an online system for the formative assessment of students’ understanding of mathematics and discuss how it develops diagnostic competence and influences teaching. The smart-test system covers many mathematics topics studied by students between about 10 and 16 years of age. It is programmed to provide teachers with an automated diagnosis of their own students’ stages of development in specific topics and to report on an individual’s errors and misconceptions, in order to inform teaching. Our claim is that teachers’ diagnostic competence increases when they have easy access to information about their own students’ thinking. In turn, this can further i..

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Funding Acknowledgements

The smart-test system was developed at the University of Melbourne by Kaye Stacey, Vicki Steinle, Beth Price and Eugene Gvozdenko, with initial funding from the Australian Research Council Linkage Projects Program LP0882176 in partnership with the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development, Victoria, then further contracts with DEECD and the Catholic Education Office (Melbourne). We thank Ms Valerie Everist, Ms Sara McKee and Mr Terence Griffin for assisting teachers with using this system and for participating in interviews, and all the teachers and students who have contributed to this project to date and continue to do so.