Education Commons^™

Accountable Assessment, Richard Lehrer

2021-2030 ACER Research Conferences

There is widespread agreement about the importance of accounting for the extent to which educational systems advance student learning. Yet, the forms and formats of accountable assessments often ill serve students and teachers; the summative judgements of student performance that are typically employed to indicate proficiencies on benchmarks of student learning commonly fail to capture student performance in ways that are specific and actionable for teachers. Timing is another key barrier to the utility of summative assessment. In the US, summative evaluations occur at the end of the school year and may serve future students, but do not help teachers …

The Annual Status Of Education Report Survey: Monitoring Learning Levels Of Children In Rural India, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Assessment GEMS

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey is a household-based survey of school-aged children in all rural districts in India. It is the only annual survey that yields data on children’s basic learning levels in this country. It evolved out of the work of a non-governmental organisation called Pratham. The ASER survey aims to obtain reliable, district-level estimates of the status of rural children’s school enrolment and skills in reading and arithmetic, and to measure the change in these estimates over time.

The Importance Of Fractional Thinking As A Bridge To Algebraic Reasoning, Catherine Pearn, Max Stephens

Catherine Pearn

This presentation will discuss how Year 6 primary school students create algebraic meaning and syntax through their solutions of standard fraction problems. Sample solutions will show how students use best available symbols to move beyond arithmetic calculation and to create innovative chains of algebraic reasoning. Several efficient and successful multiplicative methods are used to achieve this goal—in contrast to less efficient methods, usually additive, which may work only with simple fractions. Teachers need to recognise the underlying algebraic meaning emerging from students solutions and help all students use more efficient strategies and build their own bridges to algebra.

The Annual Status Of Education Report Survey: Monitoring Learning Levels Of Children In Rural India, Australian Council For Educational Research (Acer)

Assessment GEMS

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) survey is a household-based survey of school-aged children in all rural districts in India. It is the only annual survey that yields data on children’s basic learning levels in this country. It evolved out of the work of a non-governmental organisation called Pratham. The ASER survey aims to obtain reliable, district-level estimates of the status of rural children’s school enrolment and skills in reading and arithmetic, and to measure the change in these estimates over time.

Mathematics Recovery : Frameworks To Assist Students' Construction Of Arithmetical Knowledge, Catherine Pearn

Catherine Pearn

Mathematics Recovery was the outcome of a three-year research and development project at Southern Cross University, conducted in 1992-5. The project received major funding from the Australian Research Council and major contributions in the form of teacher time, from regional government and Catholic school systems. Over the 3-year period, the project involved working in 18 schools with 20 teachers and approximately 200 participating first-grade students. MR can be regarded as consisting of two distinct but interrelated components. One component concerns an elaborated body of theory and practice for working with students, that is, teaching early number knowledge. The second component …

Beyond Written Computation, Alistair Mcintosh, Len Sparrow

Research outputs pre 2011

This collection of papers based on research into aspects of number is a result of a writing conference held on Rottnest Island, near Perth, Western Australia. The concept of the conference emanated from Alistair Mcintosh and Len Sparrow and was based on two similar meetings organised by Cal Irons and Bob Reys.

All papers in this book were discussed at the Rottnest conference and subsequent changes were made by the authors based on comments and recommendations from the peer group who attended the conference.

Computerized Gradebooks And The Myth Of Objectivity, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

Computerized grading programs and electronic gradebooks can be useful tools. But in the end, Mr. Guskey reminds us, teachers must still decide what grade offers the most accurate and fairest description of each student's achievement and level of performance.

Mathematics Intervention, Marguerite Merrifield, Catherine Pearn

Catherine Pearn

A Mathematics Intervention program has been established at Boroondara Park Primary School for children 'at risk' of not succeeding with Grade 1 mathematics. The program is based on current research that shows that children become numerate by progressing through five counting stages. The development and results of clinical interviews used for testing will be discussed along with strategies that have been used to assist children overcome common difficulties identified by the testing. The importance for classroom teachers to be able to identify each child's strategies and thus their counting stage will be stressed as a starting point for numeracy teaching …

Research In Mathematics Education: A Contemporary Perspective, Alistair Mcintosh (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

The twelve chapters in this book-all but two written by researchers in Australian universities-provide ample evidence of the impressive contributions currently being made by Australia to research in mathematics education. The authors' fields of inquiry are diverse: they include discussion of the roles of language and imagery, problem posing and problem solving, students' beliefs and students' thinking, gambling and mental computation. T!1eir methodologies are no less diverse, incorporating descriptions of both quantitative and qualitative research projects, including action research in classrooms, theoretical perspectives and the development of theoretical models, reviews of research, surveys, clinical interviews and descriptions of new research …

Number Sense In School Mathematics: Student Performance In Four Countries, Alistair Mcintosh, Barbara Reys, Robert Reys, Jack Bana, Brian Farrell

Research outputs pre 2011

Since 1988 teams of researchers in the United States, Japan and Australia have been involved in a collaborative research project to assess the mental computation ability of their students. The results of this research have been reported elsewhere (Mcintosh, Bana & Farrell 1995; Mcintosh, Nohda, Reys & Reys 1995). The researchers involved were Professors Robert and Barbara Reys of the University of Missouri - Columbia, Professor Nobuhiko Nohda of the University of Tsukuba and Alistair Mcintosh, Jack Bana and Brian Farrell of Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia.

The United States and Australian researchers went on to assess the number …

Mental Computation In School Mathematics: Preference, Attitude And Performance Of Students In Years 3, 5, 7 And 9, Alistair Mcintosh, Jack Bana, Brian Farrell

Research outputs pre 2011

Commencing in 1989 a team consisting of Alistair Mcintosh, Paul Swan and Ellita de Nardi at Edith Cowan University, Perth, Western Australia, probed the strategies used by children of primary school age when calculating mentally, with a view to developing and promoting more appropriate and effective mental computation...This present monograph, which looks at the mental computation of Western Australian students in Years 3, 5, 7 and 9, is one of the outcomes of this collaborative research project.

Providing For Individual Differences In The Elementary School Arithmetic Program, Robert S. Allen

Graduate Student Research Papers

How can individual differences be provided for in the elementary school arithmetic program? It is obvious that if all pupils in the elementary schools are required to follow the same course of study, read the same books, do the same exercises, solve the same problems, and pass the same examinations, there can be little provision for individual differences. It was the purpose of this study to present practices used or usable to provide for individual differences.

A Report Of Fifth Grade Arithmetic Program In Which Intra-Class Grouping Was Emphasized, Harley Maggart

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Since education as a science is relatively young, much research still remains to be done to improve techniques and methods of teaching children in light of their native abilities.

It was the purpose of this study (1) to show the effects of grouping in a fifth grade arithmetic class in terms of change in skills and attitudes and (2) to show examples of activities and materials used to promote growth in understandings and skills within different groups.