Children As Mathematical Learners Assessment 2

Assessment 2 – Portfolio 50% - 2500 words +/- 10%

AITSL Standards addressed in Assessment 2:

This assessment provides the opportunity to develop evidence that demonstrates these Standards:

1.2        Understand how students learn

1.3        Students with diverse linguistic, cultural, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds

2.1        Content and teaching strategies of the teaching area

2.2        Content selection and organisation

2.3        Curriculum, assessment and reporting

2.5        Literacy and numeracy strategies

2.6        Information and Communication Technology (ICT)

3.1        Establish challenging learning goals

3.2        Plan, structure and sequence learning programs

3.4        Select and use resources

5.1        Assess student learning

This assessment has two (2) parts. Part A is an essay-style response focused on fractions, and Part B is focused on how you can assess children’s content knowledge related to decimals.

Part A – Fractions: What to teach and how to teach it  

The majority of the marks are allocated to Part A, so this should be reflected in how you apportion the word count (suggest ~2000 words +/- 10%).

Throughout your discussion, you must provide support for your ideas from the unit materials and other reliable and scholarly sources (i.e. journal articles, high-quality published books).

Your essay should include the following sub-headings and address the points below:

Importance of Fractions

• What are fractions?
• Why are they important?
• The progression and sequence of learning fractions in the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics up to and including Year 6.

Key Fraction Constructs

• Describe the five (5) fraction constructs (part-whole, measurement, division, operator, and ratio) and provide illustrative teaching strategies and resources incorporating the theme of this assessment. In 2025, the theme is Transport (bicycles, planes, trains, and automobiles).
• Discuss the advantages and limitations of each of the constructs.

Fraction Models

• Describe the three (3) fraction models (area, length, and set) as discussed in Chapter 15 of Van de Walle et al. (2019) and provide illustrations that incorporate the Transport theme (bicycles, planes, trains, and automobiles) of this assessment.

Misconceptions

• Discuss four (4) misconceptions primary school-aged children may have about fractions and explain how a constructivist approach can be used to help overcome these.
• Briefly describe how the diverse cultural, ethnic, or religious backgrounds of children can be employed positively to assist in learning about fractions.

Part B – Decimals: Mathematics Content Knowledge Test   

Write two (2) original multiple-choice questions designed to assess the understanding of children in Year 5 or Year 6 in relation to decimals, with justification of the significance of each question. Provide two diagnostic interview questions that could be used to draw out additional information about student understanding of the aspect to which your questions relate.

The questions should reflect the NAPLAN (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], n. d. b) style of multiple-choice questions, with a single correct answer in the options. The NAPLAN questions are about numeracy, therefore they often incorporate illustrations and authentic context: at least one of your questions should provide this. Past NAPLAN papers are available at https://www.acara.edu.au/assessment/naplan/naplan-2012-2016-test-papers. State the target year level of each question and provide an appropriate Content Description and alphanumeric code from the Australian Curriculum: Mathematics (ACARA, n. d. a). The two questions must address different Australian Curriculum Content Descriptions. Calculators would not be available to children attempting these questions. If a question is inspired by any published source, that source must be cited. “Original” means that you yourself constructed the question.

The MCK Test distractors should mostly be based on common misconceptions about decimals, thereby providing diagnostic information. Give a brief account of each of the targeted misconceptions, and support this with reliable and scholarly source/s.