ASSESSMENT PREFERENCES OF PRE-SERVICE TEACHERS ABOUT MATHEMATICS COURSE.

Components of an educational curriculum are in a dynamic interaction with each other. Therefore; the main tenets of an educational curriculum are the process of achieving a specific target, strategies determined and the evaluation of how much is learnt. Among these, evaluation chosen is a process of reflecting students' comprehension level and their knowledge building skills to teachers (Smith, 2006). As a result of the developments in cognitive psychology, behaviorism was replaced by constructivism and evaluation and teaching were combined (Webb, 2001). Therefore, the roles of testees (students) and testers (teachers) have been changed. Not only the product (learning output) but also learning processes have been considered within the domain of classroom assessment and have become a continuous part of teaching (Webb, 1992; Black & William, 1998a, 1998b; Eisner, 1999; Shepard, 2000; Webb, 2001; Stenmark, 2001; Stiggins, 2002; Mcmillan, 2004). Then, alternative assessment techniques (detailed and multiple) which compensate the lacks of traditional testing and evaluation approaches have been put in the agenda (Krulick, Rudnick & Milou 2003; Sheffield & Cruikshank, 2000). In line with the alternative evaluation techniques, learning and teaching strategies have changed and students' high level thinking skills and activities implemented by students have become more meaningful (Kulm, 1993). According to Struyven, Dochy and Janssens, (2005), recent developments, especially in the field of evaluation have been strikingly significant in the higher education level. Following this, in addition to traditional ways of testing, students' portfolio, self and peer evaluation and other new alternative testing and evaluation methods have started to be used in the higher education. In the related literature, it is seen that there are a lot of studies addressing higher education students (Baeten, Dochy & Struyven, 2008; Birenbaum and Feldman, 1998; Struyven et al., 2005; Birgin, 2007 and Zeidner, 1987). In relation to this, Struyven, Dochy and Janssens pointed out that the measurement models followed and exams given influence higher education students' studying skills and how students perceive evaluation considerably change these students' learning approaches. According to studies based on evaluation, it was found out that there is a relationship between higher education students' evaluation preferences and their learning strategies (Birenbaum, 1997; Gijbels and Dochy, 2006). Also, it was investigated that students following comprehension-based learning approach prefer open-ended questions demanding high level thinking; whereas, students learning at the surface level (memorization and repetition-based learning) tend to choose knowledge and comprehension level multiple choice exams (Baeten et al. 2008; Ben-Chaim and Zoller, 1997; Birenbaum and Feldman, 1998; Birgin, 2007; Scouller, 1998; Watering, Gijbels, Dochy and Rijt, 2008; and Zeidner, 1987). Similarly; Ben-Chaim and Zoller (1997) found out that students are willing to take multiple choice tests based repetition instead of open-ended exams in which there is no time limit. Birgin (2007) added that most of primary school teaching teacher education department students intends to choose multiple choice exams, short-answer and gap filling tests. Birenbaum and Feldman (1998) said that students with high test taking anxiety prefer multiple choice exams more that students with low test taking anxiety. Watering, Gijbels, Dochy and Rijt (2008) told that when students' evaluation preferences are considered, it is seen exams which are in the format of decreasing anxiety and stress are preferred more than other exams. As stated above, although a lot of studies can be seen about higher education level students' general evaluation preferences (Baeten et al. 2008; Birenbaum & Feldman, 1998; Birgin, 2007; Scouller, 1998 and Watering, Gijbels, Dochy & Rijt, 2008), no studies can be seen about university students' testing preferences in terms of mathematics. In line with these, this study aims at investigating assessment preferences in maths classes from pre-service teachers' perspectives. Also, in the study, it is intended to see whether there are significant differences among pre-service teachers' assessment preferences, gender and their academic achievement. This study has a survey and descriptive research design. The population of the study was 154 pre-service teachers attending to Primary School Teaching Department at Çukurova University in 2011-2012 academic fall. The sampling of the study was based on the all students at fourth year of the same department. 66.2 % of the students (102) were female and 33.8% (52) of the students were male. In the study, "Assessment Preferences Inventory (API)" was used as a data collection tool. It was developed by Birenbaum (1994) and its Turkish version language validity, reliability and validity was done by Gülbahar and Büyüköztürk (2008). In the study, as a second variable, pre-service teachers' self declaration and their maths scores were considered. Related to findings, it was figured while pre-service teachers demand information about assessment methods before they got prepared for the exams they also, prefer the measurement tools which highlight their cognitive processes. Also, another vital finding from this research was that pre-service teachers with high academic achievement chose alternative testing methods. As for gender factor, no significant difference was found in terms of assessment preferences In line with these findings, it can be suggested that pre-service teachers ought to be informed about assessment methods at the beginning and at the end of the academic term and they can be assessed through techniques that bring their cognitive processes to light. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]