Vendlinkski, T. P., & Phelan, J. (2011). Using key conceptual ideas to improve teacher use of formative assessment data. (CRESST Report 794). Los Angeles, CA: University of California, National Center for Research on Evaluation, Standards, and Student Testing (CRESST).
Vendlinkski and Phelan present the findings from POWERSOURCE, a 9 hour multi-year professional development program designed to help middle school math teachers apply formative assessment concepts to mathematics. The authors compare teachers’ knowledge maps and their ability to link a mathematics problem to the concept pre- and post- professional development and with a control group who did not participate in POWERSOURCE. Although overall group differences from participation in the professional development program were not as readily apparent, Vendlinkski and Phelan find greater improvements among teachers in the earlier middle school years and among those who have more years of teaching experience. The authors conclude that improvements in students’ performance pre- and post- teacher participation in POWERSOURCE are attributable to changes in teachers’ thinking about mathematics concepts.
Action for Learning, Formative Assessment, Professional Expertise
The DataUse web site is a part of AACC
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