Page 35 - TLU magazine - The Way to The Top

EVALUATING
ALTERNATIVE SKILLS
Functional and mathematical literacy are the preconditions for every human being in today's society to interact with others, access informa- tion and cope with intellectual tasks. In order to assess the skills of ba- sic school students, Tallinn University researchers, led by Professor of Cultural Neuropsychology Aaro Toomela have conducted special tests in Estonian and Russian.
Since reading and mathematical competence are very differently defined and thus assessed using different methods, researchers had to develop a concept prior to developing the as- sessment tools that defines what exactly will be assessed.
The team then analysed the psycho- logical structure of competences and possible reasons why
they may not evolve to the
expected level. In order to assess each of the important psychological constructs identified, the researchers designed a specific test.
The researchers created
electronic assessment
tools to describe both the
general level of reading and mathematical competence and
the possible reasons for not achiev- ing the expected level.
The tests provide, among other things, informa- tion on how well the child copes with the text compared with peers. In addition, the reading literacy assessment tool includes tasks that demonstrate how well a child has acquired ba- sic reading skills, levels of vocabulary, sentence comprehension and knowledge and use of read- ing strategies.
Tallinn University's researchers also produced guidelines for using the assessment tool and in- terpreting the results. An added value, however, is a database that enables a better understand- ing of competences from a pedagogical and
psychological perspective.
The competences described in the assessment tools are impor-
tant for coping with every- day life. So far, there were
no tools to assess these levels. Thus, it was not possible to determine
whether the students had attained the re-
quired level of coping at all. Therefore, it was
not possible to timely identify students who
needed more support.
"Implementation of general compe- tence assessment tools for primary and
lower secondary education: a pilot project on mathematical and functional literacy assessment". Dura-
tion: 1 June 2019 - 28 February 2020. Project was funded by Ministry of Education and Research with 67,000 euros Main performers: Professor of Cultural Neuropsychology at the Tallinn University Institute of Natural and Health Sciences Aaro Toomela; Lecturer of Data Analysis of Behavioural Sci- ences Kaja Mädamürk; Associate Professor Piret Soodla and Assistant Professor Eliis Härma.
Professor of Cultural Neuropsychology Aaro Toomela
TALLINN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE / NO. 14 / SPRING 2020
35
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