Formative assessment lessons: their use in the South African context

Presented by Marie Joubert

This talk reports on one partner’s experience within a design research project, called Formative Assessment in Science and Mathematics Education (FaSMEd). FaSMEd’s partners include the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in South Africa and Nottingham University, and seven other partners in Europe. The talk is given by the South African partner.

One of the overarching aims of FaSMEd is to produce a toolkit of resources to support teachers in using formative assessment well in their classrooms. In South Africa, the ‘tools’ within the toolkit are lesson units, many of which are drawn from resources produced by the Mathematics Assessment Project at Nottingham University.

The talk provides an overview of how the lessons have been used, how the research team and the teachers have collaborated to adapt the lessons for the local context and how the teachers and students have responded to the lessons. Generous video footage will be used to illustrate the points made, whilst also providing a glimpse into the wide range of classroom contexts found in the Western Cape.