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

CONTENTS

APPENDIX 1.1 Individual teacher transcripts……………………………………… 242

APPENDIX 2 Interview and Observation protocol for head teachers………….. 256

APPENDIX 2.1 Head teacher transcripts…………………………………………… 259

APPENDIX 3 Focus Group protocol for teachers……………………………….. 270

APPENDIX 3.1 Teacher focus group transcripts…………………………………… 273

APPENDIX 4 Interview and Observation protocol for the Ministry of

Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Officers……………………… 289

APPENDIX 4.1 Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Officers’ transcripts…………………………………………........................... 293

APPENDIX 5 Interview and Observation protocol for Zimbabwe

Schools Examination Council (ZIMSEC) Officers………………… 313

APPENDIX 5.1 ZIMSEC Officers’ transcripts………………………………………. 317

APPENDIX 6 Interview and Observation protocol for college lecturers………… 329

APPENDIX 6.1 College Lecturers’ transcripts………………………………………. 332

APPENDIX 7 Personal details of teachers………………………………………… 345

APPENDIX 8 Checklist for school infrastructure………………………………….. 346

APPENDIX 9 Personal details of head teachers………………………………….. 347

APPENDIX10 Personal details of (ZIMSEC) Zimbabwe Examinations

Council Officers……………………………………………………….. 348

APPENDIX 11 Personal details of Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Officers………………………………………………………………… 349

APPENDIX 12 Personal Details for College Lecturers…………………………….. 350

APPENDIX 13 St Michael’s Ascot Primary School: Standard School Policy…………………………………………………………………… 351

APPENDIX 14 Permission to carry out research from the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture……………………………………………………….. 352

APPENDIX 15 Permission to carry out research from ZIMSEC…………………. 353

APPENDIX 16 Permission to carry out research from the Secretary for

Higher and Tertiary Education……………………………………… 354

APPENDIX 17 Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Narrative

Report on a Teacher………………………………………………… 355

APPENDIX 18 Book Inspection Report……………………………………………… 358

APPENDIX 19 Professional studies syllabus………………………………………… 359

TABLE 4.1 Checklist for the urban school characteristics………………… 141

TABLE 4.2 Checklist for the rural school characteristics………………… 142

TABLE 4.3 Profiles of urban school heads………………………………… 151

TABLE 4.4 Profiles of rural school head teachers………………………… 152

TABLE 4.5 Profiles of urban primary school teachers in individual interviews………………………………………………………………………… 154

TABLE 4.6 Profiles of rural teachers in the individual interviews………… 155

TABLE 4.7 Profiles of urban teachers in the first focus group…………… 156

TABLE 4.8 Profiles of urban teachers in the second focus group……… 157

TABLE 4.9 Profiles of urban teachers in the third focus group…………… 158

TABLE 4.10 Profiles of urban teachers in the fourth focus group…………. 159

TABLE 4.11 Profiles of rural teachers in the first focus group……………… 160

TABLE 4.12 Profiles of rural teachers in the second focus group………… 161

TABLE 4.13 Profiles of rural teachers in the third focus group…………… 162

TABLE 4.14 Profiles of rural teachers in the fourth focus group…………… 163

TABLE 4.15 Profiles of ZIMSEC officers……………………………………... 165

TABLE 4.16 Profiles of Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture officers…………………………………………………………………………….. 166

TABLE 4.17 Profiles of college lecturers……………………………………… 167

TABLE 5.1 Application of the Reflective Model……………………………….209


LIST OF FIGURES PAGE

FIGURE 1.1 Balanced Model of Assessment………………………. 11

FIGURE 2.1 Classroom Assessment Circle………………………… 26

FIGURE 5.1 Reflective Model of Assessment……………………… 206

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1 .1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY

Assessment of learner learning is integral to effective instruction and learning in the education system of Zimbabwe. Teachers administer their own assessment and report the results to pupils, parents and the public in general. Assessment has been found to be an effective method for the improvement of learners’ learning in schools (Faleye & Ojerinde-Dibu, 2005). It provides opportunities for independent practice (Boston, 2002), thus providing good ground for self-assessment. Teachers are expected to use the assessment to guide effective decision-making particularly with respect to the identification, remediation and ongoing evaluation of learners (Black & William, 1998b).
Classroom assessment is seen as helpful because it gives a more immediate measure of progress and achievement of learners; guides and improves instruction, diagnoses learners’ knowledge of a topic (Hurley & Tinajaro, 2001); provides day-to-day help with teaching and learning,which is the core and base for attaining excellence in education and school improvement (Stiggins,1999), as well as help teachers find the weaknesses and strengths in their instruction and encourage them to continuously search for ways to improve teaching (Shepard,1995).
Teachers are expected to be assessment literate and capable of using such knowledge to inform instructional practice, yet despite these expectations, limits in teachers’ assessment, knowledge and training are well documented (Bookhart, 2001; Campbell & Evans, 2000). Airasian (1991) concludes that for many people, the words “classroom assessment” evoke images of pupils taking paper and pencil tests, teachers scoring them and grades being assigned to learners based on their test performance. There is a misleading tendency to equate assessment with tests and examinations. Some teachers are hesitant to use different types of assessment because the teachers feel they do not know enough to assess learners fairly using them (Airasian, 1991). High quality assessment is so relatively rare that most teachers do not know how well to engage in such assessment.
A research carried out by the Nigeria Educational Research and Development Council (2006) on continuous assessment practices of primary and junior secondary schools in Nigeria, revealed that teachers hardly used a variety of instruments such as the tests, class work, home work, projects, observations, questionnaires, anecdotal reports, checklists, rating scales inventory and practicals. Ojerinde-Dibu (2000) also highlighted that assessment presented problems to Nigerian teachers due to too many responsibilities on the teacher. The teacher has too many learners to teach, which means that he/she has many scripts to mark. Furthermore, a teacher has to perform the roles of surrogate parent, liaise with learners’ homes where necessary and perform other duties as counsellor. The New Zealand Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture funded research (2004-2005), Comparing Apples with Pears: Teachers’ knowledge on assessment and its impact on their practices also revealed that a lack of teachers’ expertise in assessment knowledge caused road blocks for evidence based improvement of teaching and learning.
A research carried out by the Kenya National Examinations Council (2000) on using feedback from public examinations and teacher assessment to improve classroom teaching also revealed that high enrolment and scarcity of facilities in many public schools made it difficult to effectively carry out continuous assessment. They went on to say that even where teachers use tests, many of the tests they develop are found wanting in 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 examinations or from commercial publications. Rather than help improve learning processes, these practices seem to encourage rote learning, which both the teacher and the pupils believe would improve performance in public examinations (Hill, 2000).
Black & William (1998) highlight that there is a wealth of research evidence showing that the everyday practice of assessment in classrooms is beset with problems. The following are some of the problems highlighted:

• 
  Marking is usually conscientious but often fails to offer guidance on how work can be improved. In a significant minority of cases, marking reinforces underachievement and under expectation by being too generous or unfocused. Information about pupil performance received by the teacher is insufficiently used to inform subsequent “work”, according to a United Kingdom inspection report on secondary schools.
  
• 
  To primary teachers particularly, there is a tendency to emphasise quantity and presentation of work and the neglect of quality in relation to learning.
  
• 
  The collection of marks to fill records is given higher priority than the analysis of pupils’ work to discern learning needs; furthermore some teachers pay no attention to the assessment records of their pupils’ previous records.
  

Assessment in Nigerian schools is tailored towards examinations especially public examinations (William & Black, 1998b). This is because Nigerian Society like in any other developing country places premium on certificates. The quality and effectiveness of schools and teachers are judged by the performance of learners in public examinations.
Ndalichako’s research (2004) towards an understanding of assessment practices of primary school teachers in Tanzania revealed that, the teachers relied heavily on traditional methods of assessment that were homework, tests, classroom exercises and quizzes. Assessment practices that require extended time to accomplish, like projects and observations were rarely used. The findings further revealed that teachers tended to emphasize the knowledge domain with the affective and psychomotor domains virtually ignored.
The Zimbabwean education system is highly competitive, academic and examination driven. A summary of inspection reports all over the country indicated that generally the amount of written work administered by teachers in their classes was inadequate (Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture Circular, 2006). Assessment reports in the Midlands region are silent about the quality of assessment, but place premium on the quantity and the layout of learners work as evidenced by the Director’s circular of 2006. (See appendix, 18 and 19).
The researcher presented a paper on assessment, measurement and evaluation to fourteen schools in the Midlands Region. During the visits to schools, it was observed that there was a casual approach to testing, measurement and evaluation in most schools. Some teachers would set tests that would address only one level of the taxonomy of objectives, while others would duplicate items from past examination papers. It was also observed that some test items were poorly structured and that assessment procedures lacked variety. Interviews with heads of schools visited indicated that assessment was a grey area’, meaning that there is little knowledge on assessment amoung teachers.
The observations above were also made during the researchers’ sixteen years of experience in the primary schools. Summarising research findings published between1990-2000, Boohart (2001) concluded that teachers needed additional instruction in assessment. Metler (2000), recommended professional development and improved teacher preparation. Stiggins (1991) argued that testing and measurement courses have not met the day-to-day assessment needs of the classroom teacher.
The above experience and observations presented a fertile ground for the researcher to carry out a research on Assessment problems in the Zimbabwes Primary Schools with special reference to Gweru District Schools.

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