Running head: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

Literature Review – Veldhuis and van den Heuvel-Panhuizen

Lesli Nevarez

National University

Completed as partial requirements for TED690

Prof. Darryl Wyatt

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Abstract

Teaching Performance Expectation (TPE) 5 is Assessing Student Learning. Assessment has

many roles in today’s classroom. It starts with pre-assessment to determine what students know

before giving a lesson, to formative assessment conducted during lessons and units to assess

progress in student learning, and summative assessment at the end of a lesson or larger unit of

lessons. Interestingly there is little assessment on the process of primary education assessment.

Michiel Veldhuis and Marja van den Heuvel-Panhuizen completed a data-driven study to identify

profiles of teacher assessments of students’ mathematical understanding. This paper summarizes

the results of this study.

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In the current education system of no child left behind (NCLB) there is a large focus on

using assessment through traditional test methods to judge student knowledge and teacher

effectiveness. This focus has created a divide in educators’ enthusiasm for assessment. Some

teachers see it as an effective tool to use daily in their classroom while others know that it is

required of them, but see little value in the task. Veldhuis and van den Heuvel-Panhuizen (2014)

completed a study that was “aimed at gaining knowledge of how the assessment practices of

individual teachers can be characterized within the universe of assessment skills and activities.”

(p.1)

There are standards to guide teachers on the expectations for assessing students. TPE5

Assessing Student Learning is one of those standards. Veldhuis and van den Heuvel-Panhuizen

note that there has been a shift in the standards from just addressing the assessment skills of

teachers to looking at the skills of teachers and the activities teachers use for their assessment.

“This transfer can be seen as a parallel to the move from teacher-centered to student-centered

education, in the sense that assessment skills only address the teacher, while assessment activities

immediately imply that students are involved, in the sense of an interaction between teacher and

students.” (Veldhuis, 2014, p. 2)

If teachers base their assessment focus on the students’ needs and preferred methods of

learning, they can better design assessments that will truly show what students know. This is

particularly important for students that may not perform well on traditional paper and pencil tests.

Even those that perform well on traditional tests are not given the opportunity to truly show all

they have learned. Rather they are showing whether they can understand the test questions and

regurgitate the information that the teacher has decided is the most important.

Veldhuis and ven den Heuvel-Panhuizen used data analysis of an online questionnaire

completed by 960 teachers from 557 different schools in the Netherlands. Based on this data,
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“The most used observation-based methods were questioning, observing, and correcting written

work (>77% weekly). The main instrument-based methods were textbook and pupil monitoring

system tests (>85% several times a year).” (Veldhuis, 2014, p.5) In addition to this conclusion

the authors completed statistical analysis on the various questions and their relationship to each

other. Through this analysis they came up with four types of teacher assessment profiles and an

estimate of the percentage of teachers that answered the questionnaire that fit into each profile.

The profiles and their percentages are enthusiastic assessors at 28.5%, non-enthusiastic assessors

at 25.8%, mainstream assessors at 35.3%, and alternative assessors at 10.3%.

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References

Veldhuis, M. and van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, M. (2014, January). Primary School Teachers’

Assessment Profiles in Mathematics Education. PLOS ONE, 9(1), 1-11.