Alignment between National College Entrance Examinations and Mathematics Curriculum Standards: A Comparative Analysis

Dae S. Hong, Yejun Bae , Yu-Fen Wu

http://doi.org/10.7468/jksmed.2019.22.3.153 | 2019 Korean Society of Mathematical Education

ABSTRACT

Measuring alignment of various educational components is an important issue in educational

research because with aligned educational system, we can have clear expectations about what to teach and assess. In this study, we examined the alignment between mathematics curriculum standards and college entrance examinations from Korea and China. The results indicate that curriculum standards and high stakes assessments from both countries are not well aligned to each other. Their Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) indices were lower than what previous studies have found and the critical values (Fulmer, 2011; Liu & Fulmer, 2008; Liu et al., 2009). There are several topics that are not assessed in both countries’ national assessments. Also, discrepancies between the most frequently covered topics in the curriculum standards and the most frequently assessed mathematical topics in the national assessments caused topic level misalignment. We also found misalignment in cognitive level. Both national assessments included more perform procedures and demonstrate understanding items than their respective curriculum standards. Thus, previous findings about the inclusion of more items with higher cognitive demand in assessments is only partially true for either country. With these results, it is difficult to say that whether mathematical topics in the curriculum standards appropriately represent and support students to do well on the CSAT and the NCEE or that the mathematical items in the CSAT and the NCEE validly assess students’ level of mathematical understanding.

Keywords: Alignment, College Entrance Examinations, Curriculum Standards

ZDM classification: D60.

2000 Mathematics Subject Classification: 97C40

Comments

Educator, Researcher, and Artist

My name guides me to be a creative educator, researcher, and traveler. Ye means 'art' and Jun means 'high.' So I introduce the meaning of my name as 'an artist going on a high note.' It does not necessarily mean that I perform well but it is more about I enjoy what I am doing. Alberta Fall, Rocky Mountain National Park, CO Water molecule drawing I have been a science teacher for about 12 years in South Korea (including one year in the United States). Creativity is my energy to design the generative science curriculum that I often got an idea from children's books, fine arts, and movies for classroom activities. Oh, of course, from travel as well. With students in Seoul Culture High School Currently, I am supporting pre-service teachers as a faculty member. It is always my pleasure to see how pre-service teachers grow their competencies through practice-based learning. My courses are growing not only their knowledge and skills but also their attitudes tow...

A generative professional development program for the development of science teacher epistemic orientations and teaching practices

Bae, Yejun., Hand, Brian.M. & Fulmer, Gavin.W. A generative professional development program for the development of science teacher epistemic orientations and teaching practices. Instr Sci (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11251-021-09569-y Read the article here => https://rdcu.be/cFaG2

Mental Wellbeing Check-in Activity - Draw Emojis

Today's topic is my past week expressed with emoticons. Usually, in this activity, the teacher puts emoticons on the screen and asks the students to choose them, but in my class, I had the students draw them directly to add a more creative element. It was an early morning class, so even the students who rushed in felt that it was helpful to calm the students' emotions as they were able to catch their breath and draw slowly as soon as they started the activity. Student B, who tried to capture a lot of happy expressions by changing colors Student A is proud that her emoji has hair

Yejun Bae's Blogspot

Search This Blog