Dynamic vs. Static Assessment: A Growth-Mindset Perspective
By Cathy Fosnot
January 19, 2017
Many of you probably have heard that I retired from CCNY and as the Founding Director of Math in the City. But you may not realize that I have definitely not stopped working! I have too much of a passion for math education for that to occur! I’ve been very busy writing new CFLM units on geometry and
measurement and a new book Conferring
with Young Mathematicians at Work. I’ve also been busy with digital technologies: 1) developing a powerful app for new ways to do formative assessment using my landscapes; 2) building an online personalized professional support system to help teachers run vibrant math workshops; and 3) consulting
with DreamBox, an adaptive learning engine for K-8.
At the annual meeting in San Antonio, I’ll be giving a talk on my new assessment work on Friday morning. I hope many of you will join me at the session to learn about how children’s big ideas, strategies, and models can be dynamically assessed and documented using
a new app we have developed, how assessment items can be constructed to pick up information to place children on developmental learning trajectories to truly inform instruction, and how related rubrics with teaching implications can be used in powerful ways for intervention and prevention. The common vision
about assessment that we all share so deeply is that it needs to inform teaching. Assessment should capture genuine mathematizing, not just answers or the verbal prose explaining them. It needs to capture children’s strategies, their ways of modeling realistic problems, and their understanding
of key mathematical ideas. Bottom line, it needs to capture where the child is on the landscape of learning—where she has been, what her struggles are, and where she is going: it must be dynamic (Fosnot and Dolk 2001; van den Heuvel-Panhuizen 1996). Come hear about how we are doing this.
Also on Thursday morning my colleague Maarten Dolk and I will be presenting our new work on blended professional learning. We recently released a powerful, new platform with the capacity for blended PD, which is being used currently by many school districts and universities around the world. Coaches are running PLCs with it;
university professors are teaching their courses with it; and districts are using it to provide teachers with on-demand personalized professional learning opportunities. Join us for this session, too!
Be sure not to miss Cathy's sessions at the 2017 NCTM Annual Meeting in San Antonio:
Dynamic vs. Static Assessment: A Growth-Mindset Perspective
April 7, 2017 | 8:00–9:00 a.m. in Hemisfair 1
Assessment should inform teaching. It should be continuous, pick up data on mathematical growth and development, and provide information about the "zone of proximal development." This session will examine powerful ways to craft formative assessments to provide teaching implications that ensure resulting positive growth mindsets in learners.
The Crafting and Use of Technology for Professional Learning
April 6, 2017 | 9:30–10:30 a.m. in Room 214A
A variety of digital formats for professional learning such as MOOCS, blogs, forums, and online courses with both synchronous and asynchronous designs have been tried in the past with varied success. This session will present research results and potential new possibilities for the future that allow teachers more control over their own learning.