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PRIMER ON LARGE-SCALE ASSESSMENTS OF EDUCATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
review and analysis of participating countries’ curricula and other sources of information. The assessment team reviewed grade-wise curricula and learning standards in these areas, descriptions of national assessment programs and classroom assessment guidelines, time allocations for each subject, and descriptions of transitions from mother tongue to official language of instruction in some countries. Common curricular elements identified during the review were used to develop the final SEA-PLM frameworks for mathematics, reading, and writing (UNICEF and SEAMEO 2017a). For the SEA-PLM 2019 exercise, the mathematical literacy domain was defined as a “person’s capacity, given a problem in a context that is of interest or importance to them, to translate the problem into a suitable mathematical formulation, to apply mathematical knowledge and skills to find a solution, and to interpret the mathematical results in relation to the context and to review the merits or limitations of those results” (UNICEF and SEAMEO 2017a, p. 15). The mathematical literacy domain comprises several subdomains, including numeric and algebraic literacy, measurement and geometry, and probability and data analysis. Each subdomain features items that require cognitive processing of mathematical information at different levels of complexity to arrive at a solution (box 9.5). In many of the tasks included in the mathematical literacy assessment, understanding and expressing a stimulus using mathematical terms is required, rather than producing numerical calculations. Real-life problems included on the SEA-PLM 2019 assessment are not limited to a specific subdomain but rather require students to combine aspects of different content areas to reach a solution (UNICEF and SEAMEO 2017a). The reading literacy domain is defined as “understanding, using and responding to a range of written texts, in order to meet personal, societal, economic and civic needs” (UNICEF and SEAMEO 2017a, p. 23). This definition highlights the relevance of literacy as a process that involves, but goes beyond, decoding to include location and interpretation of information, understanding the purpose of a text, and using text information to evaluate knowledge of the world (UNICEF and SEAMEO 2017a).
BOX 9.5. Cognitive Processes Assessed in the Southeast Asia Primary Learning Metrics 2019 Mathematical Literacy Assessment Cognitive processes Translate: expressing a problem in mathematical language—taking it from the context to a mathematical formulation suitable for finding a solution Apply: using mathematical knowledge and skills to find a mathematical solution or to generate mathematical results; mainly using mathematical ideas, objects, and techniques Interpret and review: translating mathematical solutions to the context of the problem Source: Adapted from UNICEF and SEAMEO 2017a.
