Kurebwa mercy thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for doctor of philosophy



Download 1.72 Mb.
Page21/29
Date23.04.2018
Size1.72 Mb.
#46668
1   ...   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   ...   29

5.3 SUMMARY OF THE FINDINGS


The paragraphs that follow give a summary of the findings of the empirical study discussed in Chapter 4 and constrated with literature findings in Chapter 2

5.3.1 Teacher Competencies


It was found that most of the teachers lacked the requisite competencies to carry out assessment in the primary schools. The lack of competencies was attributed to poor training of teachers by teachers’ colleges, which concentrate mostly on other aspects of the curriculum and giving peripheral treatment to assessment. Teachers come out of teachers colleges without the knowledge of item writing or statistics to analyse data and apparently they had to learn assessment whilst on teaching practice. As was observed, trained teachers who were mentors to the teachers on practice, passed on their poor assessment practices to the learner teachers thus creating a vicious cycle of poor assessment.

In addition, when teachers completed their college studies, they went into the field where staff development programmes on assessment were apparently a rare phenomenon. The Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture encouraged the staff development programmes to be mounted through the Better Schools Programme, but from this study it emerged that very little was happening on the ground.ZIMSEC which was responsible for setting Grade 7 tests sometimes invited teachers from different schools to set Grade 7 items. However, not all teachers were well trained andZIMSEC made it clear that it was not its mandate to train teachers on assessment. As such, the development of teachers on assessment remains a neglected area.


It also emerged from the study that some schools tried to mount some staff development programmes in areas outside assessment, but teachers were not interested in attending these. The apathy was attributed to poor remuneration and work overload. Teachers seemed to suggest that the curriculum was congested and addition of anything else, no matter how pertinent, would enlarge the existing burden. A staff development workshop for example, was viewed as an extra weight (see 4.4.1).
It would appear that teacher competencies are compromised by inadequate teacher education, lack of staff development programmes on assessment in the schools, negative attitudes towards staff development programmes as well as incompetent mentors in the schools.

5.3.2 Lack of Variety of Assessment Methods


It also emerged in the research that teachers mainly used tests in the assessment of pupils. They also used homework and daily exercises but the main thrust was on tests. The tests were given weekly, fortnightly or monthly. These tests were essentially administered because the teachers wanted to satisfy the demands of performance appraisal where they were expected to have a prescribed number of tests recorded in their record books. Because of the performance appraisal Key Result Areas (KRAs), some teachers confessed cheating by recording false marks. The teachers did this because they felt overloaded with work. It also emerged that these tests were summative and quasi–formative.
The teachers gave these series of tests following the ZIMSEC format of conducting examinations. This they did, to ensure that their pupils excelled in the summative ZIMSEC Grade 7 public examinations, which were written at the end of the seven year primary education period. If pupils performed badly, the teachers and head teachers of the poor performing pupils would be called in by District Education Officers for reprimand. This, teachers found to be embarrassing. Moreover, after the public examinations, schools were ranked according to performance. These ranks were announced at a public meeting where all the schools would be represented, thus causing further embarrassment.
As a result, assessment for teachers meant drilling pupils so that they perform well in public examinations. For the stated reason, primary school teachers mainly confined their assessments to the cognitive domains of learning giving a cursory treatment to the affective and psychomotor domain and yet assessment should mirror a full range of the child’s learning (see literature review, 2.6). The other reason which emerged was that the cognitive domain was easier to assess and that ZIMSEC public examinations also concentrated on the same domain.
In addition, the lack of variety in assessment methods was the result of the culture of the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, ZIMSEC as well as the teachers themselves who revealed that there was need for the whole education system to change their mindset and see other forms of assessment as important. To date, mostly summative assessment is used in the primary schools, ZIMSEC does summative assessment, the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture assesses teachers to see if they were fulfilling the summative aspect, thus, teachers follow suit and concentrate on summative assessment. The most interesting aspect was that the participants in this research were aware of the importance of formative assessments as evidenced by their views and comments.

5.3.3 Teachers’ Conceptions on Assessment


All pedagogical acts are affected by conceptions teachers have about the acts of teaching, the process and purpose of assessment practice and the nature of learning (see literature review, 2.9). It emerged from this study that teachers emphasised summative rather than formative assessment for reasons cited in paragraphs 4 of 5.2. As highlighted in literature review, 2.9, teachers are not immune to the system in which they work. The research further revealed that the way the teachers assess the pupils was attributed to the culture of the nation which lays emphasis on summative assessment (see literature review 2.12). Literature review has also indicated that the post independent Zimbabwe may have been influenced by pre-independence assessment methods which emphasised high stakes summative assessments (see literature review, 2.9). This research revealed that indeed summative assessment dominated in the Gweru district primary schools.

5.3.4 Barriers to Effective Assessment in the Primary Schools

5.3.4.1 Policies


Teachers revealed that they had problems in implementing assessment policies. This was because techers had no imput in the formulation of the policies and were difficult to implement due to large classes which ranged from 30-50. Teachers found it unrealistic to give fortnightly tests in all the 10-11 subjects of the curriculum. Some schools had hot sitting while others had composite classes making it difficult for the teachers to implement assessment policies. Because of this, teachers tended to develop a negative attitude towards assessment (see paragraph 4.4.4.1).

5.3.4.2 Too many records


Teachers lamented that they had been reduced to clerks in the school system. They were to maintain the scheme book, individual record, extension work, test record, remedial book just to mention a few. These records consumed a lot of the teachers’ time to ensure that they were up to date, as such; assessment becomes difficult because records were an additional load. (See paragraph 4.4.4.2)

5.3.4.3 Demands of Public Examinations


It surfaced from the study that teachers taught for examinations as such their assessment practices were tailored towards examinations. Teaching for examinations was done because of competition at regional schools’ prize giving days and the teachers wanting their pupils to excel at Grade 7 level (see paragraphs 4.4.4.3 and 2 of 5.3.2). Grade 7s were examined on only four subjects of the curriculum which were English, Content, Shona and Mathematics (see 2.12). It was in these subjects where teachers centred their teaching and likewise gave tests in order to fully prepare their pupils for Grade 7 examinations.
Such assessment failed to build a complete child as they only succeeded in equipping pupils with test taking strategies. It was an unfortunate situation that school effectiveness was judged by the manner in which schools performed in their summative Grade 7 examinations, as such, all assessments became skewed towards the Grade 7 public examinations.

5.3.4.4 Economic Factors


These have posed yet another barrier to effective assessment in the primary schools. The teachers said that the salaries were too low to boost their morale. Instead of concentrating on their core business, which includes assessment, teachers would rather commit themselves to income generating activities.

5.3.4.4.1 Resources

These also impacted negatively on assessment in the primary schools. Teachers lamented on the unavailability of resources such as exercise books, textbooks, photocopiers, printers and furniture in some schools which are all crucial in facilitating assessment. It also emerged from the teachers that in most of the schools teachers were still writing tests on the board which was time consuming and physically taxing. All these factors hindered effective assessment practices.

It also emerged from the research that electricity was another stumbling block in assessment. While some schools had electricity, load shedding was making it difficult for schools to use electricity. Some schools had managed to buy generators for use but they still lagged behind in terms of other resources and facilities.


A peculiar problem to some rural primary schools was the lack of furniture to the extent that some of the pupils wrote on their laps and some pupils crowded themselves on existing few benches. Some pupils also could not afford to buy writing exercise books and pens. These among other resources made assessment in the primary schools difficult.

5.3.4.5 Lack of Motivation


The research study has also revealed that teachers lack motivation which emanated from lack of resources (see paragraphs 5.3.4.4.1 and 4.4.4.4), inadequate facilities (see 5.3.4.4.1) large class sizes, unachievable policies, too many records in the school and demands of the performance appraisal (see 4.4.4.4).

5.3.4.6 Other Problems


The findings of this research also revealed that there were other problems that hindered effective assessment practices in the primary schools. It surfaced that absenteeism was a problem which affected most of the rural schools especially in the rainy season when pupils either go to the fields or heard cattle. This made it difficult for the teachers to teach and assess the progress of such pupils.
The teachers also highlighted that they were disturbed by other activities that were run in the schools during learning periods. These included community meetings and sporting competitions. Because of these teachers may fail to carry out the required assessment procedures and yet they are supposed to be up to date with their assessment records. All the highlighted problems were reported to be thwarting assessment efforts in the primary schools.



Download 1.72 Mb.

Share with your friends:
1   ...   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   ...   29



The database is protected by copyright ©ininet.org 2024
send message
    Main page
education system