TABLE OF CONTENTS:
INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………..…….………2
I-DEFINITION OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT…………………..……………………..3
II- CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT……………………….………3
II-1- systematic nature of continuous assessment……………………………….…….………4
II-2-Comprehensive nature of continuous assessment…………………………………….….4
II-3-Cumulative nature of continuous assessment………………………………….………..4
II-4-Guidance-oriented nature of continuous assessment………………………………….…4
III-RELEVANCE OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT…………………………… ………..5
IV-TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS FOR CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT………………….7
IV-1-TECHNIQUES FOR CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT………………………..………..7
IV-2-TOOLS FOR CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT……………………….………………..7
V- PROBLEMS OF IMPLEMENTING CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT IN SCHOOLS….7
CONLUSION…………………………………………………………………………………10
REFERENCES……………………………………………………………………………….11
Introduction
One of the functions of a school is the certification of the individual learner under its embrace (Idowu & Esere, 2009).
To effectively carry out this role, assessment of one kind or the other is a prerequisite. Assessment is a means whereby the teacher obtains information about knowledge gains, behavioural changes and other aspects of the development of learners (Oguneye, 2002).
It involves the deliberate effort of the teacher to measure the effect of the instructional process as well as the overall effect of school learning on the behaviour of students. Assessment covers all aspects of school experience both within and outside the classroom. It covers the cognitive as well as the affective and psychomotor aspects of learning. Conceptually as well as in practice, continuous assessment provides feedback to children and teachers. Such feedback provides information which is used for purposes of improving on the child’s performance or modifying the content, context and methods of teaching, as well as in making a variety of other decisions.
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I-DEFINITION OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
Continuous assessment could be defined as a mechanism whereby the final grading of learners in the cognitive, affective and psychomotor domains of learning systematically takes account of all their performances during a given period of schooling (Falayalo, 1986).
Assessment in the cognitive domain is associated with the process of knowledge and understanding. The affective domain applies to characteristics such as attitudes, motives, interests, and other personality traits. Assessment in the psychomotor domain involves assessing the learners’ ability to use his or her hands (e.g. in handwriting, construction and projects).
Another definition by Airasian (1991) describes continuous assessment as an assessment approach which should depict the full range of sources and methods teachers use to gather, interpret and synthesise information about learners; information that is used to help teachers understand their learners, plan and monitor instruction and establish a viable classroom culture. On their own part, Baker and Stites (1991) opined that continuous assessment should involve a formal assessment of learners’ affective characteristics and motivation, in which they will need to demonstrate their commitment to tasks over time, their work-force readiness and their competence in team or group performance contexts.
From these definitions, one could infer that continuous assessment is an assessment approach which involves the use of a variety of assessment instruments, assessing various components of learning, not only the thinking processes but including behaviours, personality traits and manual dexterity. Continuous assessment will also take place over a period of time. Such an approach would be more holistic, representing the learner in his/her entirety. It will begin with the decisions that the teachers perform on the first day of school and end with the decisions that the teachers and administrators make on the learners regarding end-of-year grading and promotion.
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Continuous Assessment will however, not be successful without the dutiful commitment, diligence and sacrifice on the part of teachers. The task is difficult and calls for dedicated objectivity and handwork on the part of the teachers, counselors and everybody involved in the education of the child.
II- CHARACTERISTICS OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
The following are the characteristics of continuous assessment.
Systematic
Comprehensive
Cumulative
Guidance –Oriented
II-1- systematic nature of continuous assessment:
Continuous assessment is said to be systematic in the sense that it requires an operational plan which indicates what measurement are to be made of the pupils’ performance, at what time intervals or times during the school year, the measurements are to be made and the results recorded, and the nature of the tools or instruments to be used in the measurements.
II-2-Comprehensive nature of continuous assessment:
Continuous assessment is comprehensive in the sense that many types of instruments are used in determining the performance. Continuous assessment may come in form of tests, projects, assignments, observations, questionnaire and interviews.
II-3-Cumulative nature of continuous assessment:
Continuous assessment is cumulative since any decision to be made at any point in time on the pupil takes into account of all previous decisions about him. This requires the keeping of up-to-date or cumulative records of each pupil.
II-4-Guidance-oriented nature of continuous assessment:
Continuous assessment is guidance-oriented because information is used to guide his placement, career prospects, vocational training and further development.
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Through educational history, various learning theories have been developed. How these theories relate to high-stakes standardized testing has a profound effect on schools in relation to accountability. Traditional learning models are based on two underlying assumptions, namely, decomposition and de contextualization. Yin (as cited in Gimps, 1994) maintains that standardized testing is built upon ...
III-RELEVANCE OF CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
Black and William (1998) use the metaphor of the classroom as a “black box” to describe what the public, school administrators, and the media often focus on regarding assessment. In this model, inputs (e.g., curriculum requirements) go into the black box and outputs (e.g., test results) come out. There is often little attention paid to whether the students actually understand the concepts, but rather whether they can pass the tests. In contrast, continuous assessment uses the black box of the classroom as the site for an ongoing inquiry into what and how the students are learning. This collection of data, in conjunction with performance tasks and standardized tests, provides a more complete picture of what students have learned. There are a number of benefits for teachers and their students when they start using continuous assessment in their classroom. The following is a sample of the benefits and reasons this type of assessment is so useful:
1)-PROVIDES INFORMATION TO REPORT STUDENTS’ PROGRESS
While the main purpose of using continuous assessment techniques is to inform decision making and professional practice, there is a strong summative component to this formative process. Over time the documentation of the evolution of students’ understandings, skills, and science dispositions can be accumulated and can provide a wealth of data for reporting student progress and development for occasions such as report cards, science nights, and parent conferences.
2) – ENHANCES STUDENT LEARNING
Teachers will find they are able to catalyze “deeper” thinking and understanding as students reflect on their own investigative processes and experiences. Reviewing a portion of a videotape of class discussion is one example. Using continuous assessment data to provide timely feedback throughout an investigation encourages students to expand their thinking, modify their investigation, and revise their ideas while the investigation is still going on. Continuous assessment also enhances student learning in an inquiry based classroom when the students and teacher work together to articulate a vision of “good science.”
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3)-ENABLES TEACHERS’ PROFESSIONAL GROWTH
By striving to better understand and guide students’ thinking and learning, a teacher can become more reflective about his own practices and refine his teaching strategies. As a result of looking closely and sharing experiences with colleagues, he can develop new perspectives about how teaching, assessment, and learning interact and consider adjustments he might make in his teaching.
4)-SERVES INSTRUCTION WHILE MONITORING GROWTH
By using continuous assessment strategies and tools, teachers are able to capture what their students are doing with and without their intervention. Whether they are a removed observer or sitting and listening closely as they watch their students and document what they see, the information they glean helps them to determine next steps to support their growth. At times this support is immediate and happens in the moment they suggest a new material for a group of students to use in their investigation, or help a student further understand a concept by offering an explanation.
5) – TO LET PARENTS KNOW HOW THEIR CHILDREN ARE PROGRESSING.
Parents want to know how well their children are doing in school. Reports based on continuous assessment by the teacher help parents to know about their child’s progress on a regular basis, not just at the end of the year.
6)-TO HELP DETERMINE WHAT KIND OF REMEDIATION AND ENRICHMENT ACTIVITIES TO PROVIDE, AND TO IDENTIFY WHICH STUDENTS NEED ASSISTANCE.
Continuous assessment can tell a teacher which students are falling behind in their understanding of particular topics. Looking at the assessment activity of a learner can help a teacher to find out where the learners are struggling and what problems they are having. The teacher can then design new learning experiences for those learners. Better learners who are able to learn new information more quickly than the other students may need additional lessons or activities to keep them engaged in learning.
IV-TECHNIQUES AND TOOLS FOR CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
IV-1-TECHNIQUES FOR CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
Sitting and Listening Closely. Teachers watch the behavior of the students at work and listen closely to their conversations. At times, they may ask questions during conversations to clarify details about what students are doing and what they are finding out, but otherwise do not interfere.
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Purposeful Questioning. Teachers ask open-ended questions that enable students to reflect on, clarify, and explain their thinking and actions and give their point of view during investigations.
Sharing New Material/Information. Teachers give students new materials or information to help them move deeper in their inquiry.
Sparking Science Conversations. Teachers structure opportunities for whole-class, group, and individual conversations to explore the learning occurring through the inquiry.
Student Self-Assessment. Students conduct routine reflection.
IV-2-TOOLS FOR CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT
Among the various tools of continuous assessment we can name:
Teacher’s observation notes
Videotape
Audiotape
Photographs
Student science writing
Artifacts and products of student science
V- PROBLEMS OF IMPLEMENTING CONTINUOUS ASSESSMENT IN SCHOOLS:
1)-FINANCE:
The major problems to the successful implementation a continuous assessment is lack of funds. Money will be needed to buy textbooks that are relevant to the syllabus, stationeries, equipment and book shelves for record keeping. The absence of all these materials will pose a great danger to the successful implementation. Special budgetary allocation should be given to principals in order to purchase these necessary materials.
2)-OVERPOPULATION
There are cases whereby pupils are overpopulated. In such a case, it will be practically difficult for teachers to conduct accurate assessment. As a result students population in each class should be streamlined to manageable size.
3)-ADAPTATION TO CHANGE
Since the programme of continuous assessment is new the tendency is there for teachers to resist the idea behind the programme tactically because it is radical departure from the formal practice. As Kendall (1989) rightly asserted resistance to changes by individuals may arise:
If it means he has more work without comparable reward and
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It if might take him into uncharted territory where his shortcomings might be expressed.
For these and many other reasons an individual will prefer to maintain a status quo that is not threatening rather than risk an innovation, which is not completely in their control but for which they might be blamed in the event of failure Therefore, since the programme of continuous assessment is an additional responsibility for teachers special incentive should be introduced so as to motivate them.
4)-FAVOURITISM
It has been discovered that some teachers at times, unduly favour, some pupils while some pupils are victimized by teachers. These should be eradicated in all its ramifications. Pupils should be encouraged to report cases of undue favourism or harassment. Continuous assessment committee should also entertain, investigate petitions and resolve any emanating issues accordingly.
5)-RECORD KEEPING
The successful outcome of assessment depends on meticulous keeping of accurate records. Accurate reports should be kept for future usage. Teachers should be trained on how to fill and keep records. Assessment forms wherein teachers fill the records should be made available to teachers preferably week before the final examination.
6)-TRAINING OF TEACHERS
The haphazard way of implementing the programme in schools is as a result of lack of adequate training of teachers. Teachers saddled with the responsibilities of handling continuous assessment are either not trained or not properly trained. Due to the fact that teachers are the sole operators of continuous assessment in schools, it is imperative that they should be adequately trained. Training of teachers should commence in schools. Methods and practices of implementing continuous assessment should be incorporated in teacher training schools, Colleges of Education and Universities. Teachers should know how to use other methods of assessment apart from written tests for cognitive domain. Government should organize inservice training, seminars and workshops on continuous assessment at
regular intervals for teachers.
7) – OVER CONCENTRATION IN WRITTEN TEST
Some teachers are of the wrong view that continuous assessment is synonymous to continuous written test. As a result written test is used as the only method of assessment leading to over testing. Continuous assessment is meant for assessing cognitive, affective and psychomotor (trichotomy of learning).
Written test is the best method that can used for assessing cognitive domain while observation technique, questionnaires etc are best for assessing non-cognitive domains.
8)-UNIFORMITY
There is also the problem of ensuring a uniform format of continuous assessment in all schools. Since all pupils from various schools will sit for the same final external examinations it is necessary that a uniform assessment shall be used in all schools specifically for the final year pupils of primary institutions.
Conclusion
Assessment is one essential component of curriculum practice that has salient contribution for effective curriculum operation and implementation. Instructors’ recognition for continuous assessment and practice has significance for students learning of substantive knowledge and skill. They should integrate plan for continuous assessment with the instructional process to raise learning standards of students. Moreover, they should devise assessment tasks that practically challenge students, provide feedback and comments as they assess, engage students in the assessment process. However, as discussed above, the current state of assessment, particularly continuous assessment in higher learning programs is not in line with best practices to enhance student learning and actualize curriculum intentions. Furthermore, current changing paradigms of learning such as cognitive and constructivist have implications for awakening and changing instructors’ views and practices of assessment in order to prepare competent graduates with marketable knowledge and skill in their specific fields of study.
