Improving the accuracy of middle school students' self-assessment, peer assessment, and mathematics achievement.

education;mathematics achievement;student assessment strategies;formative assessment;assessment as learning

Elizabeth Popelka

University:University of Louisville

Department:Middle and Secondary Education

关键词: education;    mathematics achievement;    student assessment strategies;    formative assessment;    assessment as learning;   

Others  :  https://ir.library.louisville.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3295&context=etd

美国|英语

来源: The Universite of Louisville's Institutional Repository

【 摘 要 】

Despite the documented advantages of formative assessment (FA) strategies in elevating student achievement, much of the relevant research is dated and undermined by questionable design and inattention to K-12 settings. In order to fill these voids, this quantitative study tested the effect of a self- and peer-assessment-training instructional sequence, developed with recommendations from past research and employing explicitly described assessment measures and criteria, on middle school students’ assessment accuracy and subsequent mathematics achievement. The researcher hypothesized a correlation between measurable growth in assessment accuracy and gains in achievement, as well as a reciprocal effect of self- and peer-assessment ability. The subjects for this study were drawn from the population of 7th-grade students at a low-achieving urban middle school in a metropolitan area in the Midwest. The students were convenience- and purposive-selected and assigned to treatment and control groups; the treatment group contained 39 students and the control group contained 41 students. Data were collected before and after 10 hour-long self- and peer-assessment training sessions, which were conducted with the treatment group over a 3-week period. This study had an independent variable with two groups, treatment and no treatment, and three dependent variables, achievement, students’ ability to accurately self-assess, and students’ ability to accurately peer-assess. All variables were assessed numerically and analyzed using a multivariate statistical procedure. Statistical tests revealed a positive effect of peer- and self-assessment training on students’ mathematical achievement and ability to accurately self-assess. The intervention did not increase the accuracy of students’ peer assessments, contradicting the foundational conjecture that self- and peer-assessment ability would rise commensurately. Nevertheless, the gains in self-assessment accuracy and student achievement produced by the intervention indicate that teachers should adopt assessment training in classrooms. Ultimately, this study contributes a clear and demonstrably effective instructional sequence; exemplifies successful strategy implementation; and freshly affirms the connection between student assessment practices and achievement.