EDMA310/360 Mathematics: Learning and Teaching Mathematics 2, 2014 Assignment 1

Rational Number Assessment

Naomi Moses S00127550
Australian Catholic University
ANNOTATIONS- Teaching Portfolio
This is an assignment that I completed in my third year. This assignment entailed
assessing a student on their rational number understanding. After conducting a
Mathematics Assessment Interview, I wrote up this report to communicate the
students understandings and misconceptions. This assignment is evidenced that I
have shown focus area 5.5 as I have used assessment data to report on the students
understanding. I am demonstrate focus area 5.1 as I have assessed the students
learning, focus area 5.2 as through this report I am able to provide feedback to the
student, her parents and teacher and focus area 5.4 as I have interpreted the
assessment data to write this report.
Please pay attention to the first section of the assignment Teacher report on your
students Rational Number Knowledge and any misconceptions
Teacher report on your students Rational Number Knowledge and any
misconceptions
Mikayla struggled through a lot of the rational number interview. The data
suggested that Mikayla is strongest in her fraction knowledge, though still
needs to address some misconceptions. For example, Mikayla has an
understanding of fractions as operators rather than fractions representing a
number. Mikayla needs to develop her decimal number understanding. In
particular, Mikayla does not have a clear perception of place value in decimals.
This was evident where she showed a longer is larger misconception where
she ranked decimals largest to smallest based on how many digits were shown
(the more digits, the bigger the number). In addition, she did not recognise that
two decimals (1.7 and 1.70) were equivalent, which supports the reasoning
that she does not have a firm understanding of place value in decimals. Due to
this fundamental misconception, Mikayla was unable to apply her knowledge of
decimals to more difficult questions. She was unable to answer the more
difficult worded problems involving percentages at all and struggled to provide
satisfactory explanations of her answers for majority of the other questions on
decimals, often making uneducated guesses.
It was clear during the interview that Mikayla viewed some fractions and
decimals as whole numbers. This conclusion has been drawn due to her
answers to questions where she was asked to place decimals in order of largest
to smallest. As said above, Mikayla struggled with this task and though she was
able to recognise the difference between decimals less than one, two and

EDMA310/360 Mathematics: Learning and Teaching Mathematics 2, 2014 Assignment 1

three, she placed the decimals in order according to how many digits the
number had. When asked how many numbers are between 0.1 and 0.11,
Mikayla answered with 10. Mikayla saw the numbers as 1 and 11, rather than
as decimals with an infinite number of values between them.
Mikayla did, however, show her knowledge of different strategies for comparing
fractions including using equivalent fractions, benchmarking, residual thinking
and comparing fractions based on having the same numerator or denominator.
This shows that Mikayla does have an understanding of fractions and can use
multiple mathematical strategies, yet she struggles to apply these to other
questions such as a fraction of another fraction (e.g. 1/3 of 1/2). Interestingly,
Mikayla showed an understanding of improper fractions when she correctly and
clearly explain that 4/2 is bigger than 2/4, because 4/2 is more than one.
However, she was unable to place improper fractions on a number line.

Critical evaluation of the usefulness of mathematics interviews for gaining

knowledge about students current mathematical knowledge that can be used to
plan future learning opportunities. Be sure to draw on relevant research
literature to support your evaluation.
Mathematics interviews may be used as a valuable tool for teachers to gain
insights into students current mathematical knowledge, which benefits future
planning for mathematics teaching. Interviews not only give teachers a more
beneficial insight into their students understanding as a whole group, but
provide information on the students mathematical conceptions as individuals
(Zazkis & Hassan, 1998).
Mathematics interviews can be used as a tool to explore and encourage the use
of mathematical language. The teacher doing the interview is not only
modelling the expected mathematical language, but the student is asked to
explain and reason their mathematical thinking which encourages the
articulation of mathematical vocabulary. However, due to the nature of
interviews, much of the assessment is based on the students explanation of
their mathematical thinking process. This can be both a positive and a negative
factor of interviews. Whilst it allows an opportunity for mathematical dialogue
as well as enabling the teacher to assess the childs working out rather than
their solution, this also means that the explanation that the students give are
open to interpretation and if worded incorrectly, provide the wrong message
(Ginsburg, 1981). This also applies in the opposite way, in that students who do
not have a firm understanding of the mathematical vocabulary used in the
interview, may misunderstand the question and answer accordingly (Aiken,
1972). Mathematical interviews of children who do not have a strong
mathematical vocabulary may therefore not provide accurate results that allow
teachers to gain insight of their current mathematical knowledge. This does,

EDMA310/360 Mathematics: Learning and Teaching Mathematics 2, 2014 Assignment 1

however, allow teachers to gain insight on their level of understanding within

mathematical language and therefore allows for future learning opportunities
based on the teachers findings from the interview.
Mathematics interviews can be daunting on the child being interviewed if they
rely on feedback from the teacher to produce a good standard of work. Many
children may look for positive affirmation from the teacher if they are
struggling, yet during interviews, teachers are expected to remain emotionless
(Hunting, 1997). Furthermore, Hunting also writes that mathematical interviews
can have an adverse impact on students confidence as students are often
only questioned in such detail in negative situations such as when in trouble or
if they have made a mistake.

Critical evaluation of the usefulness of Open Tasks with Rubrics for gaining
knowledge about students current mathematical knowledge that can be used to
plan future learning opportunities. Be sure to draw on relevant research
literature to support your evaluation. (400 words)
Students can benefit from the use of Open Tasks and Rubrics as an assessment
strategy as it allows students to apply their own mathematical thinking to
various problems. This assessment strategy therefore provides more equal
opportunity for students of different skill levels (Boaler, 1998). Furthermore,
Boaler also writes that open tasks can even be found more enjoyable by
students as they are able to interpret and work out the problems in the ways
the enjoy most. This therefore widens learning opportunities for students and
aids the teacher in planning future lessons based on how students work out
various mathematical problems. However, because students are allowed so
much freedom with their responses, this becomes difficult for teachers to
decode students work to interpret and assess what and how they are thinking
about the various mathematical points (McGatha & Darcy, 2010).
Open Tasks can be useful as they enable students to show their mathematical
knowledge, more so than close ended questions (Van de Walle et al, 2013). This
is because open ended tasks allow for multiple answers and ways of thinking,
and so teachers are able to assess not only the answer that students produce,
but also the students mathematical thinking process. Open Tasks accompanied
by Rubrics can be useful as teachers are then able to look more deeply into
students responses rather than lumping work into two categories of correct

EDMA310/360 Mathematics: Learning and Teaching Mathematics 2, 2014 Assignment 1

and incorrect (Saxe et al, 1999). However, the use of a rubric still means having
to categorise student work and rank them from high to low based on what they
have written. Saxe et al explains that this generalisation of student work can
mean that student thinking processes may not be assessed properly, as
students are often not given a chance to explain their thinking.
The use of rubrics as a form assessment can be beneficial for teachers as it can
be time effective. Teachers are able to sort assessed student work into various
categories based on students current mathematical knowledge (Van de Walle
et al, 2013). As well as this, rubrics can be used as a teaching tool to enable
students to self-evaluate their own work (Arter & McTighe, 2001). Selfevaluation is beneficial to students as it creates more learning opportunities
that are based on each individual students need.

Reference List
Aiken, L. (1972). Language factors in learning mathematics. Review Of
Educational Research, 359--385.
Arter, J., & McTighe, J. (2001). Scoring Rubrics in the Classroom (1st ed.).
California: Corwin Press, inc.
Boaler, J. (1998). Open and closed mathematics: Student experiences
and understandings.Journal For Research In Mathematics Education, 41--62.
Ginsburg, H. (1981). The clinical interview in psychological research on
mathematical thinking: Aims, rationales, techniques. For The Learning Of
Mathematics, 4--11.
Hunting, R. (1997). Clinical interview methods in mathematics education
research and practice.The Journal Of Mathematical Behavior, 16(2), 145--165.
McGatha, M., & Darcy, P. (2010). Rubrics at Play. Mathematics Teaching In
The Middle School, 15(6), 328--336.

EDMA310/360 Mathematics: Learning and Teaching Mathematics 2, 2014 Assignment 1

Saxe, G., Gearhart, M., Franke, M., Howard, S., & Crockett, M. (1999).
Teachers shifting assessment practices in the context of educational reform in
mathematics. Teaching And Teacher Education,15(1), 85--105.
Van de Walle, J. A., Karp, K., Bay-Williams, J. M., Wray, J. A., & Rigelman,
N. R. (2013). Elementary and middle school mathematics: Teaching
developmentally. Boston: Pearson.
Zazkis, R., & Hazzan, O. (1998). Interviewing in mathematics education
research: Choosing the questions. The Journal Of Mathematical Behavior, 17(4),
429--439.