Relationship between Senior High School Teachers’ Knowledge and Practices of Continuous Assessment (Published)
One major concern of stakeholders in education across the world is how to improve students learning outcomes. To address this, a number of researchers have unearthed various factors that affect students’ learning outcomes and recommended ways of addressing these factors to improve students’ learning outcomes. This study is posited on the fact that key among these factors is the effect of teachers’ assessment practices. The study, therefore, sought to investigate the level of high school teachers’ knowledge of how to assess students’ learning and the relationship between their knowledge and how they implement it in assessing students’ learning formatively. A sample of 75 teachers and 750 students, selected from the 10 senior high schools in Southern Ghana participated in the study. Findings from the study showed, among other things, that though teachers have good knowledge of continuous assessment, there was a sharp contrast between this and their classroom practices. Implications of these findings for policy makers are discussed.
Keywords: Continuous Assessment, Formative assessment, teachers’ knowledge, teachers’ practices
Formative Assessment Practices of Senior High School Teachers in the Ashanti Mampong Municipality of Ghana (Published)
This study investigated the Senior High School (SHS) teachers’ formative assessment practices in the Mampong Municipality of Ghana. Three research questions guided the study: What is SHS teachers’ knowledge of formative assessment? What are SHS teachers’ formative assessment practices? How does formative assessment contribute to improvement in teaching and learning? Stratified and simple random sampling methods were used to select 80 teachers from the four public SHSs in the Municipality for the study. The study used a questionnaire for data collection. The study revealed that about half of the teachers lacked the conception of formative assessment and its sub-concepts. Generally, the teachers were involved in certain practices which unknown to them were formative assessment practices. They saw these practices as norms and daily routines that needed to be done as part of the teaching and learning procedures. To them, these practices contributed to improvement in teaching and learning. From the findings, the researchers recommended that, to increase the understanding of SHS teachers on formative assessment and its sub-concepts, pre-service teacher training must place much emphasis on the theory and practice of formative assessment and in-service training activities should be organised for teachers already in the field. Stakeholders of education need to give this the needed support.
Keywords: Assessment, Continuous Assessment, School-based assessment, Senior High School, Summative Assessment, formative assessment practices