It won’t be a surprise to most of you that I want to focus on
the concept of “one right answer.” The initial thought that came
to my mind was that it depends a whole lot on what you’re
assessing. If you’re assessing a particular math skill, taken
out of context, then there may indeed be a “right” answer.
Although even then I think in the long run the most important
part might be their ability to describe the process, how and why
they obtained the answer they did and why they think it’s
“right.” Because unless they are presented with that exact same
problem again – in some kind of context and where it actually
matters – getting the right answer on that particular problem
isn’t really all that important in the scheme of things. But I
think it’s more interesting to ask if that’s the type of
assessment we really want to be doing. I’m not saying that we
don’t need a way to evaluate whether they have mastered a
particular skill, but I think the question that was posed was
more along the lines of a unit test or seme