Competence-based evaluation in mathematics: the case of the cognitive process mathematization and modelling

Abstract

The curriculum of pre-primary, primary and lower secondary school of Canton Ticino has been completely revised in 2015. The new program clearly illustrates the competences that should be developed by the pupils during the compulsory school, but, unfortunately, it does not explain in detail how a teacher can design and realize competence-based teaching and learning activities and, in particular, how and through which instruments these competences could be assessed. The aim of the research project summarized in this paper was to apply a theoretical framework on competence assessment (Castoldi 2016) to the new curriculum, in order to develop a practical and suitable approach for competence assessment. The assessment approach that is being presented was tested in two lower secondary school classes and was focused exclusively on the assessment of the mathematical modelling skills of pupils. Although our work is limited to a single year, a single discipline and a single cognitive process, we argue that its results could be adapted to any discipline, cognitive process and year in the context of a competence-based curriculum.