Abstracts - Earli

subject prototypes). Prototype matching could explain students´ subject preferences and it could bea dominant mechanism in subject picking. Hence, the lack of similarity students perceive betweenthemselves and typical persons representing the science culture seems to be an important factor forexplaining the lack of students entering science careers.C 1729 August 2007 08:30 - 10:30Room: 0.100ASymposiumAssessment that feeds the development of potentials for learningChair: Olaf Köller, Humboldt University Berlin / Utrecht University, GermanyOrganiser: Marja van den Heuvel-Panhuizen, Humboldt University Berlin / Utrecht University,GermanyDiscussant: David C. Webb, University of Colorado at Boulder, USAKnowledge about students’ understanding plays a determining role in educational decision-makingand is a key for developing potentials for learning. The better assessment informs those in whosehand these decisions are, the better they can develop environments for students that offer optimalopportunities to learn. This might be true for all levels of education, but it is certainly the casewhen "using assessment in the process of learning" (Shepard, 2000). Black and Wiliam’s (1998)international review of classroom assessment studies showed that teachers who used assessment totake instructional decisions achieved substantial raises in educational outcomes. Moreover, thesegains appeared to be consistent across countries, age classes, and content areas. At the same time,the review revealed that the everyday practice of assessment in the classroom is beset withproblems and shortcomings. Therefore, it is not surprising that assessment currently is still notseen as a tool for learning and that there is even a decrease of formative assessment (Segers &Dochy, 2006).The goal of the symposium is to bring together and discuss four initiatives—fromfour different countries, the US, Sweden, Cyprus and Germany—aimed at the further developmentof assessment that supports learning. These initiatives each have their own perspective, but allhave in common that they focus on getting a better understanding of the students’ mathematicalthinking as a crucial input for the development of potentials for learning. The first contributionaddresses the aspect of professional development of teachers and show how teachers can get betteraccess to what their students think. The second one uses a multimodal approach to analyze thegovernment-provided diagnostic materials. The other two contributions also bring in theresponsibility of assessment designers and show how problems covering multiple representationsand improved coding can better reveal students’ mathematical understanding.Understanding students, understanding practice: Using professional development to help teachersmake instructional decisionsRoberta Schorr, Rutgers University, USAThis research involves a professional development project in which interacting teams ofresearchers, teachers, administrators, pre-service teachers and graduate students, collaborate as"co-investigators" during extended sequences of activities aimed at helping all participants torevise, test, refine and share their understanding of students’ mathematical thinking. The ultimate– 164 –