Assessment Dimensions
Assessment in Connected Mathematics (CMP) is an extension of the learning process, as well as an opportunity to check what students can do. For this reason, the assessment in CMP is multidimensional, giving students many ways to demonstrate how they are making sense of the mathematics.
The Curriculum and Evaluation Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 1989), the Assessment Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 1995), Principles and Standards for School Mathematics (NCTM, 2000), and more recently Common Core State Standards for Mathematical Content Mathematical Practices (2010) provide guidelines that describe mathematics education in schools. Attention is given not only in terms of mathematical objectives, but in terms of the methods of instruction, the processes used by students in learning and doing mathematics, and students’ dispositions towards mathematics. These documents suggest that the design and implementation of mathematics curriculum must pay attention to students’ content knowledge, disposition, and work habits.
Assessment in Connected Mathematics is designed to collect data concerning the following three dimensions of student learning:
Content Knowledge
Assessing content knowledge involves determining what students know and what they are able to do.
Mathematical disposition
A student’s mathematical disposition is healthy when he or she responds well to mathematical challenges and sees himself or herself as a learner and inventor of mathematics. Disposition also includes confidence, expectations, and meta-cognition (reflecting on and monitoring one’s own learning).
Work Habits
A student’s work habits are good when he or she is willing to persevere, contribute to group tasks, and follow tasks to completion. These valuable skills are used in nearly every career. To assess work habits, it is important to ask questions, such as “Are the students able to organize and summarize their work?” and “Are the students progressing in becoming independent learners?”