Mathematics is a very important subject in primary education, but it is also one of the most difficult subjects in which pupils have many problems. Many teachers still do not want to or do not have time to deal with different approaches to monitoring the pupil’s knowledge, therefore the culture of seeking errors and counting incorrect answers is still dominant. Nonetheless, a growing number of teachers use the formative monitoring of knowledge, in terms of the use of various useful strategies. The monitoring of knowledge enables the teacher to recognise pupils’ knowledge and the weaknesses that need to be addressed. With an appropriate strategy of formative monitoring of the knowledge, the teacher can find out in an interesting and quick way, what pupils already know, what are the most common pupils’ misconceptions, what do they still want to know and which mathematical concepts cause them the biggest problems. On the basis of this findings the teacher can adjust his further activities. The active role of pupils, their motivation and the desire for their own progress, is very important in this regard, as they can evaluate their knowledge. The teacher can achieve this through various formative monitoring strategies.
Due to the fact that formative monitoring of knowledge is playing an increasing role in teaching and that the role of continuous assessment for improvement is being emphasized, with this study I wanted to find out what primary school teachers think of the formative monitoring of mathematics knowledge.
The results showed that formative monitoring of knowledge seems important to primary school teachers and that they consider it important. Teachers involve pupils in designing performance criteria, self-evaluation of knowledge, peer evaluation, and they acquaint them with learning goals; therefore, pupils can be active in the learning process. Teachers also consider that their formative monitoring of knowledge is effective and that their feedback is well received by the pupils, but they don't take it into account as much. The conclusion can be made that, in general, teachers, and consequently pupils, are satisfied with the way in which knowledge is being monitored.
The theoretical part also describes some of the newer strategies for formative monitoring of mathematics knowledge. One of the goals of the study was to find out how some of these strategies will prove to be effective in practice (after the implementation of these strategies by primary teachers teaching mathematics).
All strategies that the primary school teachers implemented in the classroom have proven to be effective, therefore interesting and useful. Some teachers have known some of these strategies beforehand and have already used them in class, but in other subjects, not so much in mathematics. After having this experience, the teachers will continue to use these strategies, even in other subjects, because they seemed interesting to both, teachers and pupils, and enriched the lessons.
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