S

Assessment of students´ performance in Secondary education in Mathematics.

The APM (Associação de Professores de Matemática,

Portugal) perspective.Lurdes Figueiral (President, APM)

Jaime Carvalho e Silva (ex-member of the Board of APM)Renata Carvalho (member of the Board of APM)

Delors Report (1996)

International Commission for Education in the XXIst century – UNESCO

Secondary Education: special goal of the century – in order to have development it is needed to have a high portion of the population with a secondary education

Delors Report (1996)

Secondary education is a path to social and economic promotion

…but it has failed to prepare for work life and for higher education at the same time

Portugal

Same thing… secondary education fails to prepare for both paths but higher education is the focus! Preparing for work is undervalued.

Secondary education (grades 10-12) is compulsory in Portugal but…

There are several options in secondary education (general studies, professional studies, artistic studies) but only one “noble” option where all investment is done!

APM

Thinks that secondary education has a value in itself, students should learn something meaningful, independently of the option taken.

National examinations

At the end of secondary school, exam grades are worth 30% of the final grade in each course (students do 4 national examinations, other do not have examinations).

Higher Education (Universities, Polytechnic Institutes and other Schools) use the results of these exams as a form of selecting students (Medicine uses Physics/Chemistry, Biology/Geology and Mathematics to select students) giving them 35-50% of the ranking grade.

APM

Portugal

APM thinks that examinations in Portugal do not serve as a means of concluding a cycle of studies

Exams are used as a “ferocious” means of separating the students at the higher top of the scale (the last 25%) to have a “good” ranking of students that choose Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Architecture and Health Studies.

Exams vs school grades

2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

-10.0

-5.0

0.0

5.0

10.0

15.0

Média CEMédia CIFDiferença Média _x000d_(CE-CIF)

APM

APM thinks that the structure and content of the Mathematics secondary examinations are drifting away from the official syllabus of the discipline and are influencing the practice in schools that are “forced” to prepare for the examinations, not preparing for broad goals as the syllabus states.

Matemática A (1997)

Hans Freudenthal (1905 – 1990)

Freudenthal directed a second set of criticisms towards the testing movement. He was skeptical of objective testing methods and condemned the negative influence of examinations and testing techniques on education.The hard core of his criticisms centered on ignorance of subject matter and the overestimation of reliability at the expense of validity (Freudenthal 1980, 1991) and he did not share the optimism of the objective testing movement.

Examinations – 2014

Mean: 9.2/20 Median: 6.5/20

Secondary Education

It is important to recenter Secondary Education so that it is important for the personal development of students at this level, with a sense in itself, with different options with varied specific goals, and examinations should respect these options and not “distort” them or force a different practice in schools just because “everybody wants to have a chance to enter Medicine”.

Conclusion rates

APM

APM does not agree with national examinations at the end of the 4th and 6th grade (they are being done this week and the school “continues” after that).

Badly done. What is the sense of a question involving: “Mother, I am going to spend 2/3 of the money my aunt gave me to buy a book and 2/5 to go to the cinema. ”

APM

Agrees with 9th grade examinations, they are best done, but in some points they are not adequate (questions too simple or too difficult) but consequences are not taken: which are the weak points where should teachers invest more carefully?

Results are not satisfactory, too many students have a weak grade, this should be addresed.

Matemática A – 12th grade

APM

The results at the 12th grade level have been diminishing every year but the Ministry of Education says it is “normal”. APM does not agree this should be ignored.

…