An Assessment Study About Students’Mathematical Modeling Competence In Compulsory Education Period

Against the international backdrop of sweeping mathematics curriculum reform, mathematical modeling has come to fore. The item that fostering students’ mathematical modeling competence can be seen in the curriculum standards of many countries like China, USA, German and so on. However, for compulsory education period, there is no clear definition of what is mathematical modeling competence or how to assess students’ modeling competence.This article is one of the sub-topics for the research of model and assessment framework of mathematical core competences over compulsory education period, which is the key project of the National Ministry of Education with the project number of11JJD880027. Main work has been listed in the following:1. Design the assessment framework for students’mathematical modeling competence over compulsory education period.This paper refer to the international authority on the way of mathematics assessment, evaluating in the form of assessment tasks, in solving which, students are typically required to extrapolate from what they have learned in school and to apply mathematical knowledge to authentic problems situated in a variety of contexts. The assessment tasks are designed with five indicators, and the total frame diagram is shown below.Figure1Assessment framework of mathematical modeling competence over compulsory education periodThe design of assessment tasks is according to the five indicators of the assessment framework in which the characteristic process of mathematical modeling determines the problem format. Therefore the assessment framework guides the design of tasks in five indicators.2. Design the assessment tasks and verify the assessment framework.The design of assessment tasks is according to the five indicators of the assessment framework.Finally three problem tasks were generated for the assessment of mathematical modeling.1172students in eight different areas of the country have been selected for testing. We use IRT in the analysis of the test result for verifying whether the level proposed is realistic, thus verified the rationality and validity of the assessment framework.3. The preliminary application of the assessment framework.In this paper, simple analysis for the three questions has been done for the students in the eight areas, and we have the following finding.The students’modeling competence lies between "zero level" and "reproduction" or "connection" levels;There is no significant difference between boys’and girls’mathematical modeling competence;There is significant difference among students’ modeling competence from8areas.