On creating a 'free of anxiety' assessment environment for students with special needs

Abstract

The paper discusses a theoretical perspective and supports a possibility of creating a special assessment environment for students with special needs, where their mathematical knowledge and understanding can be assessed without intervention of external psychological factors that may affect such assessment. A concept of a zone with minimal affect of anxiety is introduced and described. Students' successful work to extend the zone through a carefully selected chain of questions, where some of the questions only are part of real assessment, allows reconsidering their status as those with low achievement in mathematics, and identifying their main learning difficulties as of psychological character. Suggestions about further ways for investigating a 'free of anxiety' assessment environment are given in the final section of the paper.