Teachers' use of classroom assessment in primary school mathematics education in the Netherlands

This paper reports on a survey of the classroom assessment practices of Dutch primary school teachers in mathematics education. We investigated, using an online questionnaire, how teachers collect information on their studentś progress and how teacherś assessment methods, purposes, and beliefs about the usefulness of assessment are related. In total 960 teachers at 557 Dutch primary schools responded to the questionnaire. Observation-based assessment methods of questioning, observing, and correcting written work, were the most frequently - that is weekly applied methods, whereas instrument-based methods, particularly using textbook tests and student monitoring tests were employed several times a year. Teachers used assessment mainly for formative purposes and they considered the assessment methods they used themselves as most relevant.