Performance Based Assessment in Maths: Hampton High's Disaster Relief Mission
A screenshot from a Video Documentary of the Hampton High's Disaster Relief Mission.
In one of my articles (read it
here), I highlighted the importance of sharing classroom teaching experiences.
In another article, I noted about the rare culture of African educators, and
specifically Tanzanian teachers in sharing their teaching practices. This
culture is common to European teachers. There is a tendency for them to
document their experiences on how they organize, plan and enhance
student learning.
As a means of stressing the
importance of documenting our teaching practices, today I present to you
another example from Mathematics Teachers in Hampton High School. To test
student understanding of the trigonometry topic, teachers had to plan for a
project which could allow learners to apply their knowledge, skills and
understanding of Trig. The project was named Disaster Relief Mission.
But, before moving on, what the
heck is this Performance Based Assessment? It is a form of hands-on-activities
that allow learners to demonstrate their skills, knowledge and understanding of
a particular topic by performing real world authentic tasks.
Performance based assessment can
range from simple tasks such as writing an essay to complex activities such as
performing on a stage and participating in a complex project. Performance based
assessment stimulate development of higher order thinking skills such
evaluating, synthesizing and assimilating of information in the course of
solving real world problems.
Suppose you have taught students on
how to cook "Ugali". Some simple tasks can be providing students with
a multiple choice questions assessing their knowledge on the procedures of
cooking Ugali. An advanced task can be writing an essay about cooking Ugali. A
complex one now will be performing a real task of cooking Ugali.
An example of the complex project
students can perform is the Hampton High School Disaster Relief Mission where
students applied their trigonometry knowledge and skills as they role-played as
traffic controllers and pilots in the rescue mission. Read here in detail about the project and
learn about the power of sharing as well as the relevance of performance based
assessment in teaching and learning.
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