SELF-ASSESSMENT MATERIALS FOR USE IN PORTFOLIOS

ABSTRACT

The issue of how to develop student, class or teaching portfolios in mathematics is a murky one because so much of the evaluation in mathematics classes has heretofore been “summative” or based on tests, which cannot demonstrate how learning is occurring. Suggested here are (1) self-assessment assignments which ask students to report on their own learning, and (2) methods for building class, teaching, or student portfolios from this information. While these techniques have a natural affinity with collaborative learning techniques and are not necessarily original, they have been tweaked to include the added variable of self-reflection. Hopefully these assignments will serve as a springboard to motivate the instructor to experiment with more individualistically-suited assessment projects, compatible with the paradigm of the interactive classroom.

KEYWORDS:

• Portfolio
• critical thinking
• classroom assessment techniques
• collaborative learning techniques
• interactive classroom
• summative and formative assessment