TEAM: Teachers Evaluating and Assessing Mathematics

During the mid-1980s, the Southern Regional Examination Board (SREB) and the Mathematics Centre at the University of Chichester initiated a project in anticipation of the publication of the GCSE National Criteria for Mathematics. The aim of the project, known as Teachers Evaluating and Assessing Mathematics (TEAM), was to consolidate and build upon the vast experience of assessment of coursework in mathematics that was available at CSE and beyond, including Mode 3 ‘O’ level.

The members of the development team, made up of teachers, staff from the Centre and a representative from the SREB, had all had experience of school based project work. They all felt that project work was an often misunderstood and undervalued medium for multi-faceted assessment and there was a need to move away from the old worksheet or copy-and-cobble model so frequently associated with it. As the project progressed the term ‘project work’ was replaced by ‘students’ extended work’ but the whole approach was towards the development and assessment of coursework in general.

The material presented in this collection is in six sections:

Section 1. Examples of students’ work from fourteen tasks covering a wide range of ages and attainment.

Section 2. Reflections and writing from teachers with various levels of experience.

Section 3. This section contains suggestions, questions and activities related to changing the climate in the classroom, which would facilitate this form of work.

Section 4. Practical hints and ideas for classroom approaches and resources are contained in this section.

Section 5. This is concerned with the ongoing evaluation by teachers of their students and raises issues concerning its relationship to formal assessment.

Section 6. This raises questions about objective assessment. Some models for assessing coursework are offered so they can be tried out using students’ work .

• URL: http://stem.org.uk/cxgu