The Knowledge of Arithmetic: Educational Testing Essay

Introduction

The knowledge of arithmetic is crucial for the students of elementary school. Such operations as addition and subtraction are essential for these learners. This paper will present three test items which will show whether students are able to perform these operations. Additionally, it is necessary to develop an essay item that will show whether learners have understood the usefulness of these activities.

Learning Outcome

The students will be able to apply such operation as addition to a real life situation.

Test Item 1

The car travelled 60 miles from Town A to Town B. Then, it covered another 45 miles from Town B to Town C. How many miles did this car travel in total? Choose one of these options.

1. 105;
2. 95;
3. 100;
4. 120.

Learning Outcome 2

The learners will be able to understand the principle behind subtraction and perform this operation.

Test Item 2

Suppose that you have five applies. You gave one apple to your friend and one apple to your mother. How many apples do you have now? Choose one of these options.

1. 2;
2. 3;
3. 1;
4. 4;

Learning Outcome 3

The students will be able to two operations, addition and subtraction in sequence.

Test Item 3

Suppose that you have six toys. Your mother gave you one more toy, but later you decided to give three toys to your friend. How many toys do you have now? Please choose one of these options.

1. 4;
2. 3;
3. 5;
4. 2.

Essay Item

Write a short composition about your class activities. Please tell how you can use addition and subtraction in real life. Do you think that they are useful? Explain your answer.

The rationale behind the test and essay items

These test items were developed to evaluate students’ ability to perform the basic mathematical operations like addition and subtraction. Each of them was based on a specific situation in which a student must either add or subtract numbers. Such formulation is particularly important because the learner must see that the knowledge of arithmetic can be applied to real life (Jensen 2002, 7). Certainly, it is always possible in mathematics; yet, educators should always emphasize the practical aspects of this discipline.

This task is extremely important for the teacher because he/she has to awake students’ interest to this subject. Similar test items can be created for other arithmetic operations like multiplication or division. The situations described in test items were adapted to the experiences of second or third grade students. One of the main principles of instructional design is that the tasks have to correspond to the psychological development of a person; otherwise such assignments will be of very little use (Kubiszyn, T., & Borich). Thus, while designing test items for students of elementary school, a teacher should take into account two circumstances:

1. physiological development of these learners,
2. the necessity to practical uses of the discipline.

In turn, the main point of the essay item is to prompt students to think about various uses of arithmetic. These learners should not view arithmetic operations as pointless activities which have to relevance to practical problems. Admittedly, this essay assignment is not related to the actual performance of arithmetic operations. Yet, it will help to increase learners’ awareness about the importance of mathematical knowledge. This is the main rationale of this essay item.

Reference List

Jensen, G. (2003). Arithmetic for teachers: with applications and topics from geometry. NY: American Mathematical Society.

Kubiszyn, T., & Borich, G. (2010). Educational testing & measurement: Classroom application and practice (9th ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.