Using a comparative judgement approach to assess the problem-solving skills of primary school pupils

Comparative judgement has been put forward as a way of assessing more open responses to mathematical questions, for example in problem solving. This paper describes a small-scale study involving a comparative judgement assessment of the mathematical problem-solving skills of 17 pupils from one primary school in England, with judgments provided by 10 teachers from that school. The scale separation reliability was 0.87, showing a high degree of accuracy in differentiating between the quality of the responses. Examples of the responses showed a valid progression in the problem-solving skills shown. Questionnaire responses from the teacher judges support the potential of the process to inform teachers and pupils of the range of approaches that can be used in such a task. In addition, through the built-in moderation process, comparative judgement can provide formative support in aligning teachers’ views of problem solving.