This descriptive phenomenology study investigated middle school mathematics teachers' formative assessment practices in the Dominican Republic. The study explored three research questions about types of formative assessment strategies teachers implemented, how they used formative assessment data to make instructional decisions, and the challenges they faced implementing these strategies. Eighteen middle school mathematics teachers from public and private schools located in three southern cities of the country participated. The data collection consisted of semi-structured interviews, focus interviews, and reviews of mathematics lessons. The findings of the investigation indicate that although teachers implemented a variety of formative assessment strategies and took an active role in the process. Thus, teachers rarely engaged students in peer-assessment, self-assessment, collaborative work, and other strategies that promote students’ using themselves and their peers as resources. Some teachers used formative assessment data to adjust instruction while others used it to provide academic intervention to students or to assign a grade. Finally, teachers experienced contextual and personal challenges implementing formative assessment, such students’ learning gaps and motivation, large class sizes, limited resources, and time to plan and implement formative assessment. Contextual actors such relating to students’ current level of performance and motivation were the most common challenges reported.

Authors:
Ana De Jesus, New York City Department of Education, United States

About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Ana De Jesus is currently a high school at a NYC public school. Her interest is in curriculum and teaching, especially assessment practices in mathematics. She is particularly interested in educational research in Latin America.

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https://www.linkedin.com/in/loubna-el-moncef-87962847

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