Assessment of high school students’ formulating skills: a framework proposal

Abstract

Formulating is a crucial skill for transforming real-life situations into mathematical representations and reconnecting mathematical abstractions to real contexts. This skill plays an essential role in mathematical literacy, problem-solving, modelling, and STEM practices. This study aims to examine high school students’ formulating skills and to propose a framework for evaluating them. The Formulating Test developed for this research was administered to 561 students to conduct validity and reliability analyses. After establishing the test’s measurement properties, the formulating skills of an additional 431 students from different high school types were analysed in relation to the proposed framework, school type, grade level, and gender. The findings indicate that students’ formulating skills are generally below the expected level, consistent with previous research. Moreover, results revealed that (1) students performed better in the mathematical sense-making dimension than in other dimensions, (2) school type had a significant effect on formulating skills, (3) grade level had a small effect, and (4) gender differences were not significant. These findings highlight the need for more comprehensive studies to support the development of formulating skills. Overall, this research provides an important foundation for strengthening formulating skills in future studies and educational practices.