An Evaluation of English Textbook of Grade VII in the Light of Competency Based Curriculum in Bangladesh (Published)
In Bangladesh, English textbook is the only material used widely for teaching English language. The textbook of class seven is designed based on the new curriculum following the experiential learning cycle, a theory of Kolb. The aims of this study are to justify the purposes of English textbook, to evaluate how the competencies are presented in the textbook and to check whether the experiential learning cycle is followed. Therefore, the study evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of this book regarding the presentation of four competencies as well as the presentation of four skills. Moreover, the research examines whether or not the units complete experiential learning cycle sequentially. The textbook provides enough opportunity for learners’ engagement. As the curriculum believes in learners’ autonomy and democratic practices, the book emphasizes group and pair work. However, there is very little scope for individual task. Based on the textbook analysis it is found that among 16 units, 7 units do not complete experiential learning cycle. During the evaluation the study also finds some other syntactic and semantic issues in the book. Beside these, the new curriculum is excellently organized. As it is designed following the new curriculum, it will have great impact on the teaching-learning system. Some recommendations are also made for improving the textbook for class seven.
Citation: Ullah M.A. and Khanum F. (2023) An Evaluation of English Textbook of Grade VII in the Light of Competency Based Curriculum in Bangladesh, International Journal of Education, Learning and Development, Vol. 11, No.4, pp.69-78
Keywords: English textbook, Experiential Learning, competency, competency based curriculum
Teachers’ Competency towards the Implementation of School Based Assessment in Secondary Schools in Edo State, Nigeria (Published)
The role of School Based Assessment (SBA) emphasized the teacher as a facilitator and an assessor. The assessment strategies involved in SBA requires a lot of responsibilities on the side of the teacher. Therefore, the research is aimed to assess teachers’ competency towards the implementation of school based assessment in secondary schools in Edo State, Nigeria with the objective to determine the level of teachers’ competency towards the implementation of school based assessment and ascertain if difference exist with respect to the teachers sex, qualification and experience. In order to achieve this, one research question was raised and three hypotheses were formulated and tested in the course of the study. The study adopted the survey research design. All teachers in the 303 public secondary schools in the eighteen local government areas of the state formed the population. The simple random sampling technique was used to select 687 teachers from 61 public schools across the eighteen local government areas of the state for the study. The questionnaire titled “Teachers Competency toward the implementation of School- Based Assessment Questionnaire (TCSBQ). The instrument was validated and yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.84 using the Cronbach Alpha method. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research question and independent t- test statistics to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that the teachers are competent towards the implementing SBA. Also the results revealed no significant difference between male and female teachers while differences exist among the teachers with respect to teaching qualification and experience. It was recommended that government should provide more platform for professional development programmes and frequent training workshops and seminars that will continuously sensitize and enhance teachers in the SBA practices.
Keywords: Assessment, Implementation, School-based assessment, competency