DISCIPLINE
Education (Mathematics).

DURATION
Over several learning sessions.

ICT USED
Multimedia CD-ROM (there is also an accompanying book).

DELIVERY CONTEXT
The delivery context of the learning setting is primarily face-to-face. Students attend three face-to-face weekly classes and the CD-Rom resource is used solely during the first two face-to-face classes. Students can also access the CD-Rom outside class time if they wish.

While this has not been done to date, the learning setting can also be applicable to a totally online mode. The activities can remain the same, however the collaboration that is required amongst the students would need to take place online using both synchronous and asynchronous discussion tools. Support could also be provided from an online teacher on discussion boards and by email. Presentations could be in the form of written papers or reports, powerpoint presentations or video.

TARGET AUDIENCE
Undergraduate students, no prior computing experience or skills necessary. The program is also appropriate to groups of postgraduate students. It is also useful for professional development work with inservice teachers, who typically discuss their own assessment problems prior to using the CD-ROM, then work in groups with the resource to investigate the issues of relevance to them (rather than the five problems presented on the CD-ROM).

COHORT
This learning setting was originally designed for a standard class size of about 30 students, with students breaking into groups of 3 or 4 for the activity.

It can be implemented with cohorts of 2 students or more. However, a "comfortable" number is possibly determined by the numbers of computers in a classroom that can be used by small groups. There were no problems with 30 students on 10 computers.

BROADER CONTEXT
This learning setting forms a significant component of one mathematics method unit/subject in a teaching degree. It is usually completed in the second year. The unit as a whole focuses on problem solving and investigations in number, space and measurement (in addition to assessment).

This learning setting is usually introduced in week 4 of the semester, but there is flexibility in the unit. The setting relates to the other components of the subject by teaching assessment in a manner that is compatible with the other elements of problem solving and investigations.

Assessment in mathematics education has traditionally relied on the use of pencil and paper testing. Recent curriculum documents are advocating an expansion of assessment strategies to include a variety of approaches such as portfolios and interviews.

The learning outcome is to assist pre-service teachers and existing teachers to use a variety of assessment strategies and techniques to help them accurately assess their students’ progress.

IMPLEMENTATION OF ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES
Assessment is integrated with the task. Each group prepares both a written report, to be assessed by the lecturer, and an oral presentation (to be made to a simulated school staff meeting) assessed by their peers. Students are given criteria to judge each presentation in the form of an evaluation sheet to assist in the process. An example of the evaluation sheet is as follows:

IMPORTANCE OF ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES USED
There is no separate assessment for this learning design, such as an examination or essay. Assessment is fully integrated with the task. The task is a realistic one, which is designed to replicate the type of task that a teacher might realistically be expected to do at some stage in their teaching career.

The importance of this integration is that thinking, reflecting, composing, articulating and defending learning are all done with a meaning and purpose, rather than as studying a range of decontextualised facts for an exam or test. The students have the opportunity to create polished products rather than smaller parts or sub-tasks that are in preparation for something else. They also have the opportunity to commit significant time and effort to a single task requiring depth and understanding.

WHY ICT IS USED
In order to produce an effective learning environment on the issue of assessment in mathematics, which also fulfilled the requirements of the situated learning model, it was necessary to provide preservice teachers with the experience of observing expert teachers using different types of assessment in classrooms. It was also important for the preservice teachers to be able to talk to the teachers about why and under what conditions they used each particular strategy and to be able to ask school children how they felt about them. They also needed to have access to informed comment by experts and to the thoughts of other learners with varying degrees of skill.

In order to do this, it would have been necessary to take groups of preservice teachers to a large number of schools and to have them observe many expert teachers in their classes (in addition to their professional practice). The logistics of organising this was highly problematic in that they would need to observe a large number of cases. The imposition such an arrangement would make on normal classroom practice, together with the difficulty in locating a sufficient number of teachers who could model the range of strategies, made it a totally impractical option. The use of ICT was a viable alternative.

HOW ICT USE HELPS
The use of ICT provides the opportunity to combine various forms of media i.e.: video, text, audio in a central easily accessible resource was paramount in the choice of multimedia on CD-ROM as the delivery medium. (See previous comment as well).

MOST IMPORTANT ICT CONTRIBUTION TO LEARNING DESIGN
The combination of video clips, sound, text and graphics meant that interactive multimedia was capable of supporting the constructivist perspective exemplified in the situated-learning approach adopted, and presenting it in an efficient and accessible format. Multimedia also enabled a ‘criss-crossing’ of the resources in such a way that relevant examples could be explored in close-proximity to each other.