3.2+Principles+of+Assessment+and+Technology

Assessment An assessment serves as a tool to the teacher, because it allows the teacher to get a feel for where each student is at in their progression towards the goals. It also guides their learning. There are six standards for good mathematics assessment and they are as follows:
 * reflect the mathematics that students should know and be able to do;
 * enhance mathematics learning;
 * promote equity;
 * be an open process;
 * promote valid inference;
 * be a coherent process. (22-2)

An assessment allows the students to see what information is most important and why. This also allows students to see how much they know, and understand their struggles. It helps students set goals for themselves so they know what they have to work on for the future.

Assessments allow the teacher to see how the instruction is working, what material is being taught and received well, and what direction the instruction should go. Assessment is not just limited to tests and quizzes, it includes questions the teacher asks during class, short homework assignments, and anything else the teacher does that gets information out of the students. The teacher should look for any common struggles, because if multiple students are struggling and vocalize it, then more students are probably struggling with it and not vocalizing it. The teacher can use formative or summative assessment, but if done well, the same assessment can do both, which gives an understanding of where the students are at in content, and level of understanding.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Technology <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Technology includes the use of computers and calculators, which allow students to focus less on computation and more on the reasoning, problem solving, and decision making. Technology should be used to supplement and support the understanding and intuition gained from doing mathematics. It should not be used as a crutch to always solve the easier problems. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Technology allows students to do a wider variety of problems, because there are many problems that would take hours by hand, but the calculator can do them in a matter of minutes. It can also be used for a variety of activities that allow students to understand concepts in a different manner. For example, geometry and the shapes can be hard to understand, but computer programs allow students to play with the shapes, giving them a better understanding. Technology should not be used to replace the teacher, because the teacher is still important in guiding the direction of the course, and explaining the material that is hard to understand with technology. It is up to the teacher to determine how technology will be used and when, because it is not always appropriate to use technology. It is up to the teacher to determine when technology is needed versus when mental math is the way to go. When trying to point out a pattern or shortcut, mental math would be useful, but when a problem is complex with 6-digit multiplication, a calculator can be useful for efficiency. Technology can be used to help the teacher assess students, because observing students can be as good of an assessment as a test can be.