This paper investigates the shift from conventional assessment methods to authentic assessment methods in tertiary institutions particularly, in the 21st century classrooms. The paper will focus on exploring students’ preference for conventional and authentic assessment methods, the benefits and challenges of transitioning to authentic assessment methods which emphasizes real-world problem-solving and application of knowledge and skills. Descriptive survey research design was deployed in the study, guided by four research questions and four hypotheses. The population will comprise students from tertiary institutions in South-East geo-political zones in Nigeria. A sample of 1838 students was drawn from five tertiary institutions using simple random sampling and accidental sampling techniques. The instrument for data collection was the “Conventional versus Authentic Assessment Methods in 21st Century Classroom Questionnaire” (CAAM21CCQ). The instrument was adapted from Saher et al. (2022) and Fatmawati (2018) respectively. The estimated reliability coefficient of the instrument using Cronbach Alpha was 0.813. the instrument was administered using Google forms. The research questions were answered with using descriptive statistics. Whereas, the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha levels using paired t-test, independent t-test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) as appropriate. Findings indicated that students prefer both assessment methods and authentic assessment foster development of the 21st century skills. Further, no statistically significant difference was found on students’ perception on challenges of authentic assessment methods and the implementation strategies based on gender and programme. It was recommended among others, that educators should combine conventional and authentic assessment methods when necessary.
Keywords: 21st century classroom, Authentic Assessment, conventional assessment, tertiary education
