On the basis of the theoretical background of the performance evaluation on which active researches have recently been made as a new alternative in the method of educational evaluations, we have compared and analyzed the actual practices of the per...
On the basis of the theoretical background of the performance evaluation on which active researches have recently been made as a new alternative in the method of educational evaluations, we have compared and analyzed the actual practices of the performance evaluation, examined its problems, and suggested alternatives for it. The research has been organized around the sample of 133 students in three college-oriented ordinary classes and 86 students in two employment-oriented commerce classes in a comprehensive high school.
As the review on the theoretical background of the performance evaluation, in the first place, we examined the definitions of the performance evaluation, the necessity for its introduction, its general characteristics, new theories on instructions, criticism on the multiple choice tests, the patterns of performance evaluation, the necessities for performance evaluation in mathematics, the methods of performance evaluation in mathematics and its grading methods.
Subsequently, the basic survey has been made on the ability and interest in mathematics of the students in the sample, on the basis of which the description-based questions of performance evaluation were presented in the three units of sets and propositions, numbers and expressions, equations and inequalities among the areas applicable to the students of ordinary and commerce classes in comprehensive high schools. Through the above survey, the results and reactions thereof have been compared and analyzed for the performance evaluation on the students of ordinary classes, for which the classroom activities were organized mainly for the entrance into the school of higher education, and the students of commerce classes, for which the classroom activities are structured mainly for the career courses. The results of the study may be summarized in two as follows:
First, in the basic survey, the preference for common mathematics showed 51.9% in the ordinary classes and 44.1% in the commerce classes, with negligible difference between the two classes. In addition, the degree of understanding of the instructions indicated relatively high levels of 63.2% in the ordinary classes and 79.1% in the commerce classes. The higher level of understanding in the commerce classes may be due to the contents of their lessons which were not related to the entrance examination to higher schools and thus less burdensome to the students.
Second, the outcome of the question items for evaluation showed that in the case of the ordinary classes, the achievement was high for the questions of high interest, and high levels of achievement was evident in the verification and the solution with the employment of simple numerical formulas. On the other hand, the levels of interest and achievement did not agree with each other in the commerce classes, which indicated that the students in the commerce class had substantial difficulties in the proof with numerical expressions, while they had the ability to some extent to solve the problems of the verification with the employment of Venn diagrams. The achievement for the questions accessible with the mathematical faculty of thinking in general, however, showed high records both in the ordinary and commerce classes.
In line with the conclusions as above, the performance evaluation for the ordinary classes should be targeted to the calculation of complicated expressions or the mathematical concepts, both with a certain level of difficulty, whereas for the commerce classes it should cover the topics easily accessible in actual practices so that the courses can induce the interest and motivations in mathematics. The development and application of various items of questions for these purposes may be the pressing issue deserving the top priority of the attention of the teacher of mathematics.