Assessment Practices for Teaching and Learning of Mathematics: The Perception of Pre-service Teachers in District Khairpur, Sindh Pakistan
Mathematics plays a vital role in academics as well as in the everyday lives of individuals. Moreover, it is considered the most complicated and tough academic subject among students due to its complexity. Whereas, in terms of teaching and assessment strategies, mathematical conceptualization is also one of the most challenging aspects among teachers. In the classroom, mostly pedagogical and traditional assessment practices develop students' negative attitudes towards mathematics. Similarly, assessment in mathematics is an integral part of teaching and learning, but it is usually viewed as a problematic part of the instructional task. There is considerable evidence that teachers' beliefs about mathematics assessment impact their teaching of mathematics. This study aims to identify the perceived approaches to assessment in the mathematics classroom and analyze the effective domains of assessment in the mathematics classroom by pre-service teachers in Khairpur. Therefore, to explore this perspective, this study has been conducted with pre-service teachers to analyze their perceptions regarding assessment practices for mathematics. The qualitative research methods employed in this study and the qualitative data collected through a structured interview protocol. The sample of study comprises five pre-service teachers from district Sukkur, Sindh. In an effort to address the research questions, thematic analysis has been used. Furthermore, the findings of this study indicated that the different perceptions of pre-service teachers about assessment in mathematics range from traditional to constructive, which highlights the importance of teaching approaches that focus on formative assessment in the math classroom along with summative assessment in a constructive way. It is recommended that formative assessment be used during the teaching and learning process of mathematics because formative assessment is more effective than summative assessment.Moreover, the study suggests that teachers should adopt some effective strategies for assessment of mathematics.