Kurebwa mercy thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for doctor of philosophy
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- 5.5 The Emergent Model
5.4 CONCLUSIONSThe study setout to determine assessment challenges in Zimbabwe’s primary schools with special reference to Gweru District primary schools. This was done in the understanding that assessment played a pivotal role in the teaching and learning situation. The research concludes that assessment in the primary school is bedevilled by a number of problems that include: Teachers lack competencies and skills in assessment. This is because the Teachers’ college curriculum has allocated little attention to assessment. Interviews indicated learner teachers were not taught assessment methods. Even when learner teachers go out in the field, there is very little done to mount staff development programmes. The Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture has neglected this area. Some schools try to mount staff development programmes in this area, but lack of resources has militated against their efforts. The problem has been broadened by the teachers’ negative attitudes towards any staff development efforts because of poor remuneration. Teachers would rather do other income generating activities than concentrating on the core business. ZIMSEC is responsible for setting summative Grade 7 tests and has the expertise to mount staff development programmes on assessment. It was revealed in this research that it was not the mandate of ZIMSEC to mount staff development programmes, but the mandate of the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. ZIMSEC, teachers colleges and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture are not working closely to address the problem as revealed in this research. Further, it has been established that the teachers used summative assessments more than formative. Formative assessment would help to improve the teaching and learning process. This perception was a result of the public examinations. Teachers tailored their assessments towards the expectations of the ZIMSEC public examinations. As such teachers failed to improve the teaching and learning situation. Teachers found themselves concentrating only on summative tests which do not improve teaching and learning. A balance of the two would be paramount. It also emerged from the study that teachers failed address all the domains of learning in assessment but concentrated on the cognitive domain. Within the cognitive domain teachers also found themselves addressing only the first level of the taxonomy. The attitudes of the teachers and the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture officers lead teachers to concentrate on the cognitive domain. The study revealed that public examinations had a great impact on assessment. Teachers would want to thoroughly prepare their pupils for the Grade 7 public examinations. Sometimes they got to the extent of drilling the pupils on test taking skills so that pupils would excel in public Grade seven examinations. Assessment in this respect failed to address all the domains of learning since teachers declared that they concentrated on the cognitive domain. The study concludes that resources were negatively impacting on assessment procedures. Lack of resources such as books, furniture, photocopiers, printers and bond paper made it difficult for teachers to carry out assessment. Teachers spend time writing the test on the board and some pupils crowd themselves on available furniture while others write on their laps. It also emerged from the study that high teacher-pupil ratio, absenteeism by pupils, low morale by teachers all contributed to assessment problems in the primary schools. 5.5 The Emergent Model       
Fig 5.1 Reflective Model of Assessment Upon a critical analysis of the findings, a model to provide insights into the identification and overcoming of assessment problems has been proposed (Figure 5.1). This model emphasises four key dimensions in which the problems of assessment are situated and can be identified. The model depicts that assessment is central to the teaching and learning situation, as alluded to in the review of some related literature. According to this model, assessment can be described in four different ways which are quality, process, form and focus. It is in these dimensions that assessment problems emergent as findings of this study, are located in an evasive and reflective manner. This is where the name of the model is coming from. The arrows within the model indicate the reflective nature of the model. The explanation of each of these dimensions is provided below. The forms of assessment are the various methods teachers employ in the monitoring of progress through performance and grading. This can take place in all the domains of learning, that is; cognitive, psychomotor and affective (see paragraph 2.5.1). Within the forms of assessment, problems such as teachers’ failure to use a diverse form of assessment, teachers concentrating on one form of assessment or teachers’ failure to choose an appropriate method of assessment can be identified. Assessment focus needs not only be the cognitive domain of learning, but also needs to include behaviours, personality traits and manual dexterity. Teachers in this research revealed that there is more focus on the cognitive domain at the detriment of all the other domains. The process refers to a series of ordered steps which are followed in carrying out assessment. There are various models of assessment with some being linear, while others are cyclic (see figure 1.1 and 2.1). The model in Fig 2.1 portrays the four steps of a cyclic process. However, in the Reflective Model these steps are reflective rather than directional. In this model, the teacher analyses the forms of assessment and then follows the assessment cycle propounded by McMunn (2011) figure 2.1. Within the process, teachers in this study showed that they have problems in focusing their assessment and in following the assessment cycle. Teachers concentrated on summative assessment and neglected formative assessment which is reflected in the cyclic model. Quality assessment provides the required information with the greatest degree of validity and reliability. In the quality of assessment, this research revealed that assessments were poorly focused and constructed with a predominance of questions that require pupils to recall factual knowledge. These problems were a result of researchers’ poor knowledge and skills in assessment. The finding that teachers hold limited in assessments skills, broadly referred to as ‘lack of competence’ in assessment is used here to illustrate the reflective of nature of this model. The assessment problem that teachers focus on the cognitive domain and neglect the affective as well the psychomotor domains cascades into the other domains of this model. For example, within this cognitive domain focus, teachers concentrate on the lower level of the taxonomy. This encourages rote and factual learning. In reflective assessment this assessment problem has ripple effects on the other dimensions and the converse is true. In the process of assessment, the teachers’ lack of skill in developing assessment tools may be emanating from lack of focus as well as poor choice of assessment form; thus, the quality of assessment is comprised. The same model can be useful in teacher education as well as to school staff development planners, in the identification of assessment problems. After identifying the problem areas, corrective measures can be implemented. The following examples in Table 5.1 below, illustrated how the Reflective Model can be applied in solving and correcting assessment problems. Table 5.1 Application of the Reflective Model
Most of the recommendations of this research have been drawn from the findings and this model. Directory: dspace -> bitstream bitstream -> A study of Major League Baseball team salary structure analysis bitstream -> Orde wingate and the british army, 1922-1944: Military Thought and Practice Compared and Contrasted dspace -> Developing air cargo operations at regional airports: a case study of East Midlands Airport, uk dspace -> Tactics of interruption dspace -> Advances in Imaging from the first x-ray Images bitstream -> ¡no te dejes quitar a tu hijo! Operation pedro pan and the cuban children’s program Download 1.72 Mb. Share with your friends:
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