4.2 Presentation of findings
4.2.10 Assessing in fractions
Theme 9: Assessment
The findings from the teachers’ experiences indicated that teachers were guided by the CAPS document when assessing fractions. They said that they use both informal (formative) and formal (summative) assessments (Khoza, 2015b). Formative and summative assessments are important when ensuring the attainment of learning outcomes in fractions. During the reflective activity the teachers stated that they gave learners class work, weekly tests and homework as assessment strategies for fractions. They found that formative assessment was more suitable. This is substantiated by Aboulsoud (2011), who posits that formative assessment is a powerful tool that enables learners to recognise the areas in which they have difficulty.
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McPhail and Halbert (2010) also agree that formative assessments should be part and parcel of the teaching and learning process. Formative assessment is called “assessment for learning” and hence it is used during, or at the end of, each lesson (DBE, 2011). This suggests that formative assessment is intended to support the improvement of learners when teaching fractions. Hunter (2010) articulates that formative assessment must be part of teaching and learning. This implies that formative assessment informs the learning process on a daily and weekly basis, as opposed to at the end of a unit of work.
Mr Beans stated that:
I give them class work to see how they are developing, and thereafter homework. I also give them weekly tests and I do not record this.
Mr Francis who asserted that:
I assess learners informally by giving them class work and homework but these assessment are not recorded.
Miss Peace stated that:
I give them class work. I will start by giving them two sums to check if they understand and then homework, which is more than the class work.
Miss Nadia stated that:
I give learners class tests, class work and homework and I do not record marks for promotion purposes.
During the semi-structured interviews and the focus group discussion, the teachers’ voices revealed that they gave their learners formal assessments for grading. They stated they gave learners quarterly formal tests that are coupled with scores. Summative assessment is recorded for progression purposes. Teachers used summative assessment to provide feedback to parents about their children’s progress. This concurs with Bennett’s (2011) assertion that summative assessment focuses mainly on the product of learning. In support of the idea is Khoza (2013) who asserts that summative assessment is a summary of formative assessment of the learners’ attainments of learning outcomes for grading purposes. This also corroborates with Cele (2009), who states that summative assessment takes place at the end of a lesson, course, semester or year, and it concentrates on marking and recording scores for grading learners.
Mr Beans stated that:
I then assess them quarterly using tests, examinations and assignments. I also assess them at the end of the year. I recorded these assessments for progression purposes.
87 Mr Francis asserted that:
I use formal assessments by giving them tests, assignments and investigations. This type is recorded because it is used to grade learners.
Miss Peace said:
I let learners write quarterly by giving them tests, projects and assignments in order to grade them.
Miss Nadia stated that:
I give learners assignments, investigations and other forms of assessments like examinations and I award learners with marks.
The above teachers’ accounts seem to suggest that they understood assessment differently, yet they were teaching the same subject and content. The teachers mentioned different kinds of assessments. They found it difficult to differentiate between CASS marks and the end-of- year examinations, tests, projects, assignments and investigations that form the SBA component (DBE, 2011). If teachers do not have a common understanding of assessment, the misconceptions affect assessment procedures and the assessment of learners in generalised.
Consequently, the different misinterpretations led to the ineffective implementation of assessment of fractions.
During the interviews it transpired that these teachers were not following Bloom’s taxonomy model of assessment. This suggested that the assessment of learners was compromised.
Bloom’s taxonomy is an organisation of learning objectives within education that teachers set for learners to achieve (Omar, Haris, Hassan, Arshad, Rahmait & Zaina et al., 2012). It is important when developing the assessment task because it explains the cognitive level of an activity for the learner so as to achieve the learning outcome (Khoza, 2013). Teachers should set their formal tasks such that it addresses the four cognitive levels: knowledge 25%, routine procedures 45%, 20% complex procedures and 10% problem solving (DBE, 2011).
However, the findings indicated that teachers stated that they gave learners assignments, projects, tests, examinations and investigations that did not necessarily cater for the four levels as articulated in Bloom’s taxonomy. The collection of different sets of assessment used in generating marks for grading learners without any formative assessment element that help learners with feedback is called continuous assessment (Kennedy et al., 2006). In short, continuous assessment is the combination of both formative and summative assessment. This also corroborated by Hoadley and Jansen (2013) that continuous assessment is the assessment
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that takes place at breaks throughout the period of learning. This suggests that continuous assessment is made up of all formal recorded tasks, which form CASS marks for Mathematics. According to the DBE (2011) the formal assessment of Mathematics in the intermediate phase comprises SBA (75%) and an end-of-year examination (25%). This suggests that tests, quarterly examinations, projects, assignments and investigations are formal assessments that add to the CASS component of 75%. Therefore, teachers should have the same interpretation of “assessment” in order to implement it effectively.