Kurebwa mercy thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for doctor of philosophy
EMERGING MODELS OF EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT
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- 2.11 CONDUCTING ASSESSMENT IN THE ZIMBABWEAN PRIMARY SCHOOLS
- 2.12 ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES IN SCHOOLS
2.10 EMERGING MODELS OF EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENTThere are basically three conceptions of assessment, that is, assessment of, for, and as learning. These new models of assessment and evaluation are emerging in many western countries such as Canada, England, and United States (Volante & Fazio, 2007). These new conceptions offer a new lens to understand the multifaceted nature of assessment. In England, the work of Black & William (1998) entitled “Inside the Black Box” highlighted the central importance of formative assessment for improving learner achievement. Collectively their studies revealed how teachers can teach well and also get good test scores when they emphasise such things as questioning technique, feedback without grades, peer assessment, self assessment and the use of formative use of summative test as instructional strategies (Black, Harrison, Lee & William, 2004; Black & William, 1998). In the United States, Stiggins (2002) argued for new ways of thinking about assessment because over- reliance on summative assessment makes it virtually impossible for teachers to adopt teaching and learning that meet individual learners’ assessment needs. Stiggins further advocated that assessment for learning (formative assessment) must be balanced with the traditional assessment of learning (summative assessment) so that teachers can feed information back to learners in ways that enable them to think well. In Canada, Gorf (2003), advocated for assessment of learning (summative), assessment for learning (formative) and assessment as learning (the assessment is not graded but acts as a meta-cognitive learning tool . The latter is a subject of assessment for learning and occurs when learners personally monitor what they are learning and use the feedback from this monitoring to make adjustments, adaptations or even major changes in what they understand. Against this backdrop it should be clear that teachers should be able to design more than summative end of unit tests and examinations, if they are to realize improvements in the schools (Green & Mantz, 2002; Shepard, 2000). 2.11 CONDUCTING ASSESSMENT IN THE ZIMBABWEAN PRIMARY SCHOOLSThe education system consists of primary education, secondary education and tertiary education. According to Kanyongo (2005) the primary level is a seven-year cycle and the official entry age is six years. It runs from Grade 1 through to Grade 7. Prior to Grade 1, children enroll in the early childhood education and care (pre-school). The teacher learner ratio is one to 30 or 40, though sometimes it can be higher than that. The subjects taught in primary schools are: Mathematics; English; Shona and Ndebele(Indigenous languages); and General Paper covering Social Studies, Environmental Science, and Religious Education (largely based on Christianity). At the end of Grade 7, learners are tested in the four subjects mentioned in the report. Kanyongo (2005) did not mention the other subjects that are not examined at grade seven levels namely, Art, Music and Physical education. According to the UNESCO Report, (1990-2005: 18) the following was reported with regards to assessment methods and instructions in Zimbabwe. Assessment in primary school is done after each topic during the term. The second type of assessment is mid-term assessment when all taught topics are assessed. The final form of assessment is the end of cycle assessment which takes place at Grade seven. Tests and examinations are common instruments of assessment and evaluation. The assessment procedures and policies are fixed in most schools .The Zimbabwe Examinations Council is responsible for decisions on assessment, objectives, content on public examinations and the awarding of end of cycle examinations. Individual teachers in the primary school do post-assessment remediation. In some schools, the last two weeks of the term are used for revising those areas where pupils would not have done well. The assessment procedures and policies are fixed in most institutions. The Zimbabwe School Examinations Council is responsible for decisions on assessment objectives and content of public examinations, assessment and the awarding of end-of- cycle grades. The same report registered the following concerns that, some teachers teach for examinations and as a result fail to develop their pupils’ skills and attitudes that are necessary for livelihood. In this area it is necessary to come up with assessment techniques that strike a balance between the affective and cognitive domains. Examinations have tended to require acquired knowledge other than a demonstration of an ability to apply knowledge. New examination techniques should match new curricula thrusts. 2.12 ASSESSMENT CHALLENGES IN SCHOOLSAssessment is integral to effective instruction. When assessment and instruction work in tandem, improvement of learner achievement is likely to occur. The procedures of assessment embrace such functions as monitoring learners’ progress, the diagnosis of learners’ strengths and weaknesses, and the decisions relating to teaching strategies which are closely tied up with quality learning and provide valuable feedback to both the learner and the teacher (Maria & Mukandawire 1993). “Teachers are expected to be assessment literate and capable of using such assessment knowledge to inform the instructional process” (Stiggins, 2001b:20). Yet, despite these expectations, limits in teachers’ assessment knowledge and educationare well documented (Bookhart, 2001; Campbell & Evans, 2000; Mertler & Campbell, 2006). The limitations that have been identified include the use of poorly focused questions, a predominant of questions that require short answers involving factual knowledge, and a lack of procedures designed to develop higher order cognitive skills (Black & William, 1998). Stiggins (2001) concurred and states that we are seeing unacceptably low levels of assessment literacy among practising teachers and administrators in our schools. He continues by stating that this assessment illiteracy has resulted in inaccurate assessment of learners, causing them to fail to reach their full potential. Stiggins (1991) has argued that test and measurement courses have not met the day-to-day assessment needs of teachers. Teachers must recognise different purposes of assessment and use them accordingly. Teachers should be able to design and administer more than end-of-unit tests and examinations if they are to realise improvement in schools (Green & Mantz, 2002; Shepard, 2001). A survey by Volante (2009) on Assessment for Learning in Schools: Implication for Transforming Classroom Practice indicated that there is an over-emphasis on assessment of learning (i.e. tests quizzes, projects). A range of assessments particularly those that emphasise traditional paper and pencil summative measures, are over-emphasised within the contemporary schools (Popham, 2005; Stiggins, 2008). In this aspect, teachers’ lack the knowledge and skills required to use effectively, a variety of assessment techniques in the classroom (Black & William, 1998). Many have suggested the reforming of schools and classroom assessment strategies that are intimately connected and that an ability to promote diverse assessment strategies is paramount to schools’ success (Harlen, 2005; Heritage, 2007). The national examination tended to shift focus of classroom assessment and away from authentic formative practice techniques closely aligned to the national examination (Stiggins, 1999). Teachers feel compelled to spend time preparing their learners to master the content covered in the national examination and to coach them on test taking strategies. Black & William (1998) concluded that formative assessment produces significant learning gains, with it apparently helping low achieving learners including learners with learning disabilities. Formative assessment helps learners to become aware of any gaps that exist between the desired goal and their current knowledge; understanding or skills and guides them through actions necessary to obtain the goal (Sadle, 1989). Assessment in Nigerian secondary schools is tailored towards examinations, especially public examinations (World Bank Group, 2001). This is because the Nigerian society, like any other developing country, places a premium on certificates (Faleye & Ojerinde 2005). They continue to argue that, the quality of effectiveness of schools and teachers are judged by the performance of their learners and no serious effort is being made by the stakeholders to ensure that Nigerian teachers develop the capacity to effectively employ assessment for the improvement of their teaching and the learning of their learners. Teachers sacrifice learning for drilling learners in things that they will be held accountable (Dhindsa et.al, 2007:1262). According to Popham (2001:21) Teachers drill their learners relentlessly of types of test items contained in the particular high stakes test their learners must pass. Such repetitions of instructional activities tend to deaden learner genuine interest in learning. All the excitement and intellectual vibrancy that learners might encounter during a really interesting lesson are driven out by tedious, test-fostering series of drills….Drilling can help learners develop low-cognitive skills and teach them to recite memorized information. The negative influence of high stakes tests has also been noted by Eisemon, Patel & Abage (1987) in Greaney (2004:4) who observed that, “Pupils were taught through drill recitation, and exercises of fill-in-the missing type, all of which procedures were designed to impart factual information and techniques that learners would need in public examinations” If this situation is also obtaining in the Zimbabwean education system, the teachers are likely to be compelled to diminish any curricular attention towards any subject that is not included on high-stakes tests. Furthermore this competitive culture of schools may be an obstacle to learning especially when linked to beliefs in the fixed nature of ability. In the United States people believe that schools with high scoring learners were successful and schools with low scoring learners were the opposite (Pophum:2001). Equally bad in Popham’s view is the idea that low performing schools receive a label such as “failing schools”. Staff members at a negatively labeled school are certain to feel awful about the way they have been identified (Popham, 2001:16). Teacher education courses appear to offer little exposure to assessment for professional preparation of teachers. The courses offered offer a very narrow view of assessment in a traditional sense (Stiggins & Conkling 1998). Wise, Luklin & Ross (1991) found that teachers do not believe that they have the educationneeded to meet the demanding classroom assessment. At the same time, teachers’ ability to develop classroom-based assessment is seen as one of the six core functions of the teachers. Teacher programmes fail to provide the literacy required for fulfilling the tenets of assessment (Chappuis, 2003). ---Assessment is peripheral in many teacher education programmes (Taylor & Nole, 1996). Furthermore, in programmes that do include assessment courses, assessment is usually treated as a foundational course focused on a set of generalisable concepts and skills. As Anderson et.al (1995) noted, survey approaches to preparation of the teacher do not allow for a rich and grounded ‘understanding’. Classroom teachers therefore need a educationprogramme in order to be effective assessors of their learners and offer focused teaching rather than where summative reporting dominated. The findings by the New Zealand Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture research on teachers’ knowledge of assessment revealed that: School leaders need a level of theoretical assessment knowledge that enables them to make school based policy decisions that lead to the balanced use of assessment purposes. Teachers lack technical assessment knowledge. The Kenya National examinations Council (2000) also reported that teachers face assessment challenges that include: High enrolment and scarcity of facilities in many public schools make it difficult for teachers to effectively carry out continuous assessment. This makes it difficult for teachers to observe learners on a one to one basis. As a consequence of these developments, teacher report on learner progress is less than wholesome, as it is predominantly based on classroom tests. Many of the tests they develop are found wanting in quality, as they lack originality of style, clarity of language and abilities to be tested. Some teachers do not bother to develop their own tests; instead they simply lift questions from past national examinations or commercial publications, which both the teacher and the pupils believe would improve performance in public examinations. The Kenya National Examinations Council (2000) finally concluded that a combination of class size, teachers inability to develop suitable assessment instruments and an endemic shortage of suitable and sufficient educational resources explain why teachers are unable to effectively assess their pupils and collect information that would help them improve teaching. 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