Show your work: secondary mathematics teachers’ use of computational test items before and during distance learning

ABSTRACT

High-school mathematics teachers tend to use computational, constructed response questions in their classroom tests. However, the rapid shift to distance learning resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic created technological obstacles to using these items. This study investigated teachers’ reasons for using particular items and how they adapted their assessment practices during distance learning. Teachers reported using computational items because they provided insight into students’ thinking, helped with determining point allocations, and prevented academic dishonesty. During distance learning, most sample teachers maintained their use of these items by collecting students’ written work via uploaded photographs or a “whiteboard” feature in a paid assessment system. Despite continued use of computational questions, few teachers reported using shown work to determine student understanding or to assign partial credit. Instead, they relied heavily on auto-grading and reported collecting student work mostly to deter cheating. Implications of these findings and future directions for research are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Classroom assessment
• mathematics education
• distance learning

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the teachers who participated in this research for giving me their time and energy during a very stressful period in their lives. I would also like to thank Emily Gleason, Lorrie Shepard, Mimi Engel, Caitie Dougherty, Derek Briggs, Sanford Student, the journal editor, and the two anonymous reviewers who provided valuable feedback on previous iterations of this work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the author.

Ethics approval

This research involved human participants and was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Colorado, Boulder (protocol #20-0416). All participants were given an IRB-approved written description of the research and signed consent forms prior to engaging in the research.

Notes

1 At the time of the interview, the product was named Go Formative. The name has since been changed to “Formative”. I will refer to it by its original name throughout the article, as that is what the teachers called it in their interviews.

2 Liz, the teacher from AZ declined to be interviewed.

3 All participants were given pseudonyms. Teachers marked with * were co-teachers. Dustin is a special education teacher who specialises in mathematics, and Rob is a mainstream mathematics teacher.

4 The following is an example of this type of problem from one of the tests I collected from Kay: “Describe the relationship between the graph of $y={\displaystyle \frac{2}{3}|x+3|-4}$ in terms of a vertical/horizontal translation, and vertical stretch/compression factor of the graph of $y=|x|$.” (Emphasis original)