Questions to Use to Assess Student's Mathematical Problem Solving

1. Do students come up with their own strategies for solving problems, or do they expect others to tell them what to do?
   
2. What do their strategies reveal about their mathematical understanding?
3. Do students understand there are different strategies for solving different kinds of problems?
4. Do they articulate their strategies and try to understand other students' strategies?
5. How do students use materials to model a mathematical situation to find solutions?
6. How do students keep track of and record their work? Is it difficult for them to talk, draw, and write about their work?
7. Do they solve mathematical problems in ways that make sense to them?
8. How do they work with peers cooperatively, participate in whole class discussion, and share ideas, materials, creations?
9. Do they learn form the thinking of others?
10. How do they work independently?
11. Do they have confidence in their own thinking?
12. When given choices what do they choose: a situation similar to a previous one or a different one?
13. Do they stay in one place, occasionally move comfortably, or move around a lot?

 

 

Dr. Robert Sweetland's notes