Paper-and-pencil assessment that provides footholds for further instruction needs to break with a number of taboos in assessing mathematical knowledge

Abstract

In this article, assessment is viewed from the perspective of education. Short-answer or multiple-choice problems are often considered to be not very suitable for informed instructional decision making. Moving to individual interviews is one possibility but is not the only solution. In this paper some taboo-breaking measures are discussed that can make paper-and-pencil assessment methods more informative. Several examples are shown from assessing number at primary school level.