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THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT IN SCHOOL

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1       Background of the Study

Assessment of students’ level of academic performance is vital to teaching and learning process as it provides the necessary feedback about the outcome of educational goals and objectives. The assessment of learning outcomes provides objective evidences necessary in the decision making process in education. As pointed out by Bassavanthappa (2009), good measurement resulting in accurate data is the foundation of sound decision making about educational endevour. In education, assessment aims at determining the level of students’ mastery of a body of knowledge and skills in a subject (Airasian, 2006).

Continuous assessment is a classroom strategy implemented by teachers to ascertain the knowledge, skills and understanding attained by students at a particular point in time. Teachers administer assessments in a variety of ways in order to observe multiple tasks and information about what students know, understand and can do. The assessments are curriculum based tasks previously taught in classroom. Continuous assessment is a method of evaluation carried out periodically or at a predetermined interval of the school year. It is aimed at finding out how much students have acquired in a subject matter. It is a consistence monitoring of students’ progress in school. It involves collecting data with a view to making value judgement about the quality of a person, object, group or event (Ajuonuma, 2007).

The continuous assessment grading system requires the assessment of the change in behaviours, in terms of cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains. The students are evaluated from one stage to the other through tests, assignments, projects and other school activities. At the end of the term or session, the tests are used for determining the performance of the students in a particular subject. Race (2007) stated that continuous assessment is more useful to the students, as it provides them with on-going feedback on their performance, helps them to become more self-critical, and encourages them to attempt mastering material as they actually work through a course, thus, achieving success in their academic goals. According to Adegbeye (2003), CA is more relevant as it allows students to demonstrate their ability and development on a periodical basis, so that students who have studied hard but is not very good at sitting for examinations is not placed at a disadvantage compared with lazy students who engage in minimum amount of work needed to pass such examinations.

In the past, the educational systems of many African nations were dominated by the one-short summative type of assessment (Alausa, 2005). Students were trained to pass examinations so as to move up the education ladder; in order to stop this, suggestions for a broader approach to assessment, which would be flexible and also provide valid and reliable results were made (Federal Government of Nigeria, 2004). In the light of this, CA was introduced to find ways in which academic evaluation impacts on the way teaching occurred and learners learnt; hence, the significance of teachers’ understanding of relevance of continuous assessment to students’ academic success. It is when people know about innovation they are to adopt that they are motivated to embrace its practices.

Through the National Policy on Education (NPE), the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN, 2004) stated that educational assessment at all levels of education would be liberalized by basing them in whole or part on continuous assessment. This recommendation was based on some deficiencies identified in the nation’s way of assessing students. The traditional system of assessment concentrated only on the cognitive domain, with little or no attempt made to assess the affective and psychomotor domains. This system encourages students to study only during the period of examination. This is done by the memorisation of facts, which are forgotten after the examination (FGN, 2004; Obe, 2005). It was based on these reasons and more that the committee set for National Policy on Education in 1971, recommended the use of continuous assessment in Nigeria Educational System. In pursuance of this policy statement, National University Commission (NUC) allotted 30% and 70% of the total score of the university students to continuous assessment and end of semester examination respectively. Towards this end, this study investigated teachers’ perception of continuous assessment relevance to students’ academic performance in Ilorin metropolis and its implications for counselling in twenty-first century.

1.2       Statement of the Problem

The urgent need to promote learning and improve performance in secondary schools in Nigeria resulted into a range of related but different developments in continuous assessment at classroom levels. The resultant feature has been inconsistent performance of students in external examinations national wide and performance still varies from school to school. This undermines the future of many students that are in schools that persistently perform poorly. What therefore remains disturbing is whether a relationship between continuous assessment strategies adopted by teachers in secondary schools and students’ academic performance in secondary school.

Kanno (2006) carryout a research work on the relevance of continuous assessment test to students’ cognitive development in elementary schools in Ilorin metropolis, Dekaiye (2011) conduct a research on the influence of school population on the implement of continuous assessment in secondary schools in Lokoja metropolis, Kogi State, while Yakub (2009) carried out his own study on the problem of continuous assessment implementation in secondary schools in Sokoto State. None of these studies were conducted on the perception of teachers on the relevance of continuous assessment to student’s academic performance in Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State. Thus, due to the paucity of researches in this area in Ilorin metropolis, the present study is investigated the perception of teachers on the relevance of continuous assessment to students’ academic performance in Ilorin metropolis, Kwara State.

1.3       Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to examine the effectiveness of continuous assessment in school.

Specific objectives include;

i.                 To examine the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis

ii.               To examine if there is any difference in the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis based on gender

iii.             To examine if there’s any difference in the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis based on the educational level

1.4  Research Questions

i.                 What is the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis?

ii.               Is there any difference in the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis based on gender?

iii.             Is there any difference in the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis based on the educational level?

1.5       Research Hypotheses

Hypothesis I

H0:     There is no relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis

H1:     There is the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis

Hypothesis II

H0:     There is no difference in the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis based on gender

H1:     There is difference in the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis based on gender

Hypothesis III

H0:     There is no difference in the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis based on the educational level

H1:     There is difference in the relevance of Continuous Assessment to students’ academic performance as perceived by secondary school teachers in Ilorin metropolis based on the educational level

1.6       Significance of the Study

This study will look intensively on the effect of teachers’ characteristics on academic performance of students. It will be beneficial to stakeholders in the educational sector such as teachers, parents, students, school management, and ministries of education, educational researchers, and the society at large.

It will be used as a guide line for schools in recruiting teachers and also help already recruited teachers in improving their teaching methods.

It will be beneficial to curriculum developers in the framing and designing of topics that will correct and improve the performance of senior secondary school students. Educational researchers will see it as an addition to the literature on teachers’ characteristics and academic performance; giving them a concise and significant outlook of the topic.

This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work.

This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.

The recommendations will enhance academic performance.

1.7       Scope of the Study

This study is on the effectiveness of continuous assessment in school. The study is carried out in the Lagos metropolis only. The study is also limited to activities of Senior Secondary Schools and not Junior Secondary Schools or Primary Schools.

The study will make use of both primary and secondary data. Questionnaires will be distributed and used to find out the correlation between teachers’ characteristics and academic performance.

1.8       Limitations of the study

The demanding schedule of respondents at work made it very difficult getting the respondents to participate in the survey. As a result, retrieving copies of questionnaire in timely fashion is very challenging. Also, the researcher is a student and therefore has limited time as well as resources in covering extensive literature available in conducting this research. Information provided by the researcher may not hold true for all institutions but is restricted to the selected organization used as a study in this research especially in the locality where this study is being conducted.

Financial constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).

Time constraint: The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.

Finally, the researcher is restricted only to the evidence provided by the participants in the research and therefore cannot determine the reliability and accuracy of the information provided.

1.9       Definition of Terms

1.       Assessment: This is the procedures and process employed in collecting information about or evidence of human behaviour.

2.       Motivation: Motivation is an activity to cause a person to act in a particular way and also a way of stimulating interest of a person in an activity. When applied to the teaching and learning of Business Studies, motivation can be seen as a way in which a teacher causes his students to act in a positive manner towards instructional programme with a view towards moving them to positive performance.

3.       Continuous Assessment: It is defined as continuous updating of teachers judgment about learners performance in relation to specific criteria which will allow at anytime accumulative judgment to be made about performance upon these same criteria.

4.         Measurement: It is the procedure of obtaining memorial description of the degree to which an individual possesses a particular characteristic.

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