This book is one of the first to attempt a systematic in-depth analysis of assessment in mathematics education in most of its important aspects: it deals with assessment in mathematics education from historical, psychological, sociological, epistmological, ideological, and political perspectives. The book is based on work presented at an invited international ICMI seminar and includes chapters by a team of outstanding and prominent scholars in the field of mathematics education. Based on the observation of an increasing mismatch between the goals and accomplishments of mathematics education and prevalent assessment modes, the book assesses assessment in mathematics education and its effects. In so doing it pays particular attention to the need for and possibilities of assessing a much wider range of abilities than before, including understanding, problem solving and posing, modelling, and creativity. The book will be of particular interest to mathematics educators who are concerned with the role of assessment in mathematics education, especially as regards innovation, and to everybody working within the field of mathematics education and related areas: in R&D, curriculum planning, assessment institutions and agencies, teacher trainers, etc.

This book is one of the first to present a variety of carefully selected cases to describe and analyze in depth and considerable detail assessment in mathematics education in various interesting places in the world. The book is based on work presented at an invited international ICMI seminar and includes contributions from first rate scholars from Europe, North America, the Caribbean, Asia and Oceania, and the Middle East.
The cases presented range from thorough reviews of the state of assessment in mathematics education in selected countries, each possessing archetypical' characteristics of assessment, to innovative or experimental small or large scale assessment initiatives. All the cases presented have been implemented in actual practice.
The book will be particularly stimulating reading for mathematics educators -- at all levels -- who are concerned with the innovation of assessment modes in mathematics education, as well as everybody working in the field of mathematics education: in research and development, in curriculum planning, assessment institutions and agencies, mathematics specialists in ministries, teacher trainers, textbook authors, frontline teachers.

The present book, Cases of Assessment in Mathematics Education, is one of two studies resulting from an ICMI Study Conference on Assessment in Mathematics Education and Its Effects. The book which is published in the series of ICMI Studies under the general editorship of the President and Secretary of ICMI is closely related to another study resulting from the same conference: Investigations into Assessment in Mathematics Education (Niss, 1992). The two books, although originating from the same sources and having the same editor, emphasize different aspects of assessment in mathematics education and can be read independently of one another. While the present book is devoted to presenting and discussing cases of assessment that are actually implemented, the other study attempts to critically analyze general and principal aspects of assessment. Naturally, the content of either book is enriched by the materials and perspectives provided by the other one. In order to put this book and its background into context, the nature and scope of the ICMI studies are outlined briefly below.

This book is one of the first to attempt a systematic in-depth analysis of assessment in mathematics education in most of its important aspects: it deals with assessment in mathematics education from historical, psychological, sociological, epistmological, ideological, and political perspectives. The book is based on work presented at an invited international ICMI seminar and includes chapters by a team of outstanding and prominent scholars in the field of mathematics education. Based on the observation of an increasing mismatch between the goals and accomplishments of mathematics education and prevalent assessment modes, the book assesses assessment in mathematics education and its effects. In so doing it pays particular attention to the need for and possibilities of assessing a much wider range of abilities than before, including understanding, problem solving and posing, modelling, and creativity. The book will be of particular interest to mathematics educators who are concerned with the role of assessment in mathematics education, especially as regards innovation, and to everybody working within the field of mathematics education and related areas: in R&D, curriculum planning, assessment institutions and agencies, teacher trainers, etc.

This book is about the smooth classification of a certain class of algebraicsurfaces, namely regular elliptic surfaces of geometric genus one, i.e. elliptic surfaces with b1 = 0 and b2+ = 3. The authors give a complete classification of these surfaces up to diffeomorphism. They achieve this result by partially computing one of Donalson's polynomial invariants. The computation is carried out using techniques from algebraic geometry. In these computations both thebasic facts about the Donaldson invariants and the relationship of the moduli space of ASD connections with the moduli space of stable bundles are assumed known. Some familiarity with the basic facts of the theory of moduliof sheaves and bundles on a surface is also assumed. This work gives a good and fairly comprehensive indication of how the methods of algebraic geometry can be used to compute Donaldson invariants.